“I won’t write news anymore!”

Journalist Golam Sarwar, who went missing on his way to work on October 29, was found unconscious beside a canal at Sitakunda's Kumira, stripped off his clothes, heavily bruised, late in the evening on November 1. While we are relieved that he is alive and back with his family, we are deeply concerned by the circumstances of his disappearance and reappearance, and the lack of concern or urgency of the authorities to rescue him or investigate the incident.

Sarwar, who is a journalist for a Chattogram-based news portal, disappeared four days after he published an article alleging that a minister's family was involved in land grabbing. Are we to believe that the timing of the two incidents was a coincidence? A video released on social media shortly after he was rescued shows a visibly traumatised Sarwar repenting and recounting, "Please, brother, I won't write news anymore!". Eyewitnesses also confirm that he kept repeating these lines, terrified that he was still under the clutches of the abductors. Although Sarwar has not given his statement yet, the bruises on his body suggest that he had been brutally tortured while in confinement. His family told The Daily Star that they feared the journalist was targeted for his reports.

The law enforcement's action—or the lack thereof—in this case, raises serious questions as well. The police reportedly made no headway in rescuing the missing journalist, even though his family was contacted at least five times by the abductor(s), using his own cell phone. If Sarwar's phone had been on, why could the police not track him immediately? Did they lack this basic surveillance capacity or did they simply not want to? 

We shudder at the state of freedom of expression and rule of law in this country if a journalist can be picked up and tortured with such impunity for simply discharging his professional duty. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a journalist has disappeared shortly after publishing news incriminating a powerful actor, nor is it the first instance of police disinterest in pursuing such a case. Shafiqul Islam Kajol, the editor of The Daily Pokkhokal, disappeared for 53 days immediately after being prosecuted under the Digital Security Act by ruling party lawmaker Saifuzzaman Shikhor and party activist Usmin Ara Beli. As of now, there has been no investigation into what actually happened to Kajol. But since his reappearance, he has been denied bail a total of 13 times, even though his physical condition has been deteriorating over the months and hardened criminals have been granted bail to ease overcrowding in the prisons during this time.

As we observe another International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, like a broken record, we must insist on an end to such impunity. The authorities must investigate who was responsible for Sarwar's abduction and take immediate steps to catch the perpetrators, no matter their political affiliation, if they are to convince the nation that the disappearance was not politically motivated.