Sohel Taj’s nephew rescued from Mymensingh
Former state minister for home affairs Sohel Taj’s nephew Syed Iftekhar Alam Sourav has been rescued from Tarakanda upazila of Mymensingh early today.
Mizanur Rahman Akondo, office-in-charge of Tarakanda Police Station, told The Daily Star that miscreants dropped Sourav at Battala area in the upazila around 5:00am. “On information, we rescued him and send him to Dhaka,” the OC said.
Sourav, a student of media and communications at Independent University Bangladesh, was picked up by some plainclothes men from in front of Afmi Plaza in Chattogram city on June 9 around 7:00pm. Sourav went there with his CV for a job after being asked by law enforcers over the phone, but he did not return home.
Earlier, Sohel Taj went live on his verified facebook page around 6:00am and said that Sourav has been found alive.
Without elaborating, he said at 5:27am, his cousin (Sourav’s mother) told him that someone called her and informed that a boy has been dropped from a vehicle. The people, who called her, have taken Sourav to a safe place, Sohel Taj said quoting Sourav’s mother.
Sourav was found near Battala Rice Mill, said Shah Kamal Akanda, officer-in-charge of local Detective Branch. District police Superintendent Shah Abid Hossain led a team to rescue him. Last reported, Sourav was on his way to Dhaka.
Earlier Monday at a press conference, Sohel Taj sought the prime minister’s intervention in finding his nephew who was allegedly picked up by plainclothes men over his relationship with a woman.
Asked what could be the fate of an abduction victim from an ordinary family given the fact that the nephew of a former state minister has been abducted, Sohel Taj said, “We are citizens of Bangladesh. We expect that such incidents would not happen to any other citizen. Today, it is my nephew. Tomorrow, it may be your brother and the day after it may happen to your son. Such an incident is not expected at all.”
The former state minister said the identity of a person does not matter. “My identity also does not matter. The state should be governed by the rule of law. It’s not expected that someone will face such a consequence in a state where justice prevails.”
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Sohel Taj said, “I request those, who have carried out the incident, to return Sourav to his family. Otherwise, your identities will be made public. We know who are behind the incident.”
Asked about the identities of the abductors, the former state minister at the press conference said news has already been published that Sourav received a call from a phone and the phone number belongs to an official of a state agency in Dhaka.
The victim’s father filed a general diary with Panchlaish Police Station in Chattogram on June 10 about his son’s going missing.
FAMILY’S CLAIMS
Reading out a written statement, Sourav’s mother made an emotional appeal to the prime minster about getting back her 27-year-old son.
She said Sourav met the woman after the Bangla film “Bengali Beauty” earned fame at home and abroad. He had assisted in making the movie.
Later, they continued the relationship through social media. At one stage, the woman told Sourav that they must marry over phone to continue the relationship, the mother said.
But the woman’s father married her off to another man without her consent, she told the press conference.
She said the marriage ended in divorce sometime in 2018 and the woman’s father blamed Sourav for it. He also threatened Sourav and his family members with life.
The mother of the victim said her son was earlier picked up on several occasions by different law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He was interrogated about his relationship with the woman.