BNP nomination seeker found dead
The body of a BNP nomination seeker and the party's Jashore district unit leader has been found floating in the Buriganga river two days after he went missing from the capital's Bijoynagar area.
The dead, Abu Bakar Abu, 50, was vice president of Jashore district BNP, his nephew Ashikuzzaman told reporters yesterday after identifying the body.
Shah Zaman, officer-in-charge of South Keraniganj Police Station, told this newspaper that police recovered a floating body from the river in Char Khejurbag dockyard area on Monday afternoon.
Relatives identified the body at Sir Salimullah Medical College mortuary yesterday, said morgue sources.
Meanwhile, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed last night alleged that Abu, a four-time chairman of Majidpur Union Parishad in Keshabpur upazila, was killed after “law enforcers picked him up” in the capital.
The BNP leader also alleged that plainclothes policemen picked up Md Azim, former president of Dhaka Medical College Hospital unit BNP, yesterday noon and his family members were clueless about his whereabouts.
Abu was on the list of the five BNP nomination seekers that the party gave to the Election Commission on Wednesday saying they were detained by law enforcers.
Talking to journalists in Jashore, Ashikuzzaman said his uncle came to the capital last week to collect a BNP nomination form for contesting the upcoming national polls from Jashore-6 constituency.
He was "abducted" from the capital's Bijoynagar area around 8:30pm on Sunday, Ashikuzzaman said.
As per the “abductors' demand”, Abu's relatives gave them Tk 1.7 lakh but yet they killed him, he mentioned.
Abdus Samad, president of Keshabpur municipality unit BNP in Jashore, said Abu left for the capital on November 12 and was staying at room 413 of the Metropolitan Hotel in Paltan area.
As a BNP ticket aspirant, he was supposed to be interviewed by the party's top leaders on Monday, he said.
Samad, also former mayor of Keshabpur municipality, said Saiful Islam, a UP member, came to the capital with Abu and was staying at the same hotel. But Saiful could not find Abu at the hotel after returning from outside around 8:30pm on Sunday.
Ashikuzzaman said he got several missed calls from his maternal uncle's mobile phone around 9:30pm on Sunday. He later called back but no one answered.
Later, someone from an unknown number called him and demanded Tk 1.5 lakh in ransom and gave him several bKash numbers, he said adding that they could not send the abductors the money as it was midnight.
On Monday, the abductors called him from a mobile phone number and they paid Tk 1.5 lakh. But the abductors sought Tk 50,000 more the following day, and later settled for Tk 20,000, he said.
Abu's nephew said they paid Tk 20,000 to the kidnappers, who did not receive their calls afterwards. Later, the abductors' phone number was found switched off.
Anjuman Ara, younger sister of Abu, claimed that they had informed law enforcement agencies, including Rab, in the capital about her brother going missing.
Abdul Mannan, manager at the Metropolitan Hotel, told this newspaper last night that Abu along with several others were staying at the hotel.
The hotel's CCTV footage showed that Abu left the hotel around 7:30pm on Sunday with two bags, he said.
Shahbagh police took the CCTV footage and some other materials from the hotel, he added.
Abul Hasan, officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station, told this newspaper early yesterday that one of Abu's nephews came to the station on Tuesday and informed about his uncle going missing.
“I sent policemen to the hotel and collected the CCTV footage, which shows he was leaving the hotel with bags. As he was seen leaving the hotel, his nephew did not file any general diary,” he said.
The police official also said that an unnatural death case was filed with South Keraniganj Police Station and that they would investigate the case.
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