Case filed against journo Kajol for ‘trespassing into Bangladesh from India’

Fifty-three days after his disappearance, photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol has been found in Benapole.

"Around 2:48 am in the morning, a duty officer of Benapole Police Station called my mother's phone and asked where my father is. I said that he is still missing, and the police officer handed the phone to my father," said Kajol's son Monorom Polok.

"The first thing my father said is that he's alive. He asked us to come get him from Benapole," said Polok.

The Benapole Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) claimed to our correspondent that they found Kajol in a field in Sadipur, a union adjacent to the border.

"Our night patrol team rescued Kajol," claimed Habildar Ashek Ali, the BGB camp commander of Raghunathpur. "We handed him over to Benapole police."

Kajol's son started for Benapole around 6am, said the journalist's wife Julia Ferdousi.

While talking to reporters, Benapole Port Police Station Officer-in-charge (OC) Mamun Khan said BGB filed a case against Kajol for "entering Bangladesh illegally from India through Benapole border".

Police will produce the photojournalist before a court soon, the OC said.

He had no passport or visa when he was found earlier today, according to police sources.

Kajol went missing on the evening of March 10, after leaving his office in Dhaka's Hatirpool.

Several days after his disappearance, his phone number was found active in Benapole, Sub-inspector Munshi Abdul Lokman, the investigating officer, had told The Daily Star.

Kajol's disappearance came a day after Saifuzzaman Shikhor -- a ruling party lawmaker from Magura-1 -- filed a case against him and 31 others on charge of publishing a report with "false information" and circulating it on social media.

Kajol's family had filed a general diary with the Chawkbazar Police Station the next day, reporting him as missing.