Environment culprits linked?

Abu Bakar Siddique

Armed miscreants yesterday abducted the husband of Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela), in Narayanganj.
The incident happened in the city's Fatulla around 2:30pm, when Abu Bakar Siddique was coming to Dhaka by his car.
He is the managing director of Hamid Fashion, a Narayanganj-based garment factory owned by Awami League lawmaker and State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid Bipu. Recently, Siddique also set up his own garment factory there.
The motive for the abduction remains unclear, but Rizwana said some real estate and ship-breaking companies might have links with it as she filed several cases against them as part of her professional duties.
A gang of six to seven, on a blue microbus, were following Siddique's red saloon since he left Hamid Fashion. The microbus knocked the car from behind when it reached Firoz Filling Station, reports our Narayanganj correspondent.
As Siddique and his driver Ripon got down from the car to check the damage, the miscreants hit Ripon in the head with a revolver, sprayed pepper spray over his face and dragged Siddique onto the microbus. It all happened within a few minutes, said Ripon.   
The abductors were wearing T-shirts and had their hair close-cropped, he added.
Kalam, a motor mechanic who was coming from Narayanganj at the time, said he saw some people dragging a person onto a new microbus.
“I saw the microbus speed away toward Signboard and then toward Dhaka,” he told the police.
Law enforcers were questioning Kalam for more clues.
Several police teams raided different places in Demra, Kanchpur and Dhaka to rescue Siddique and arrest his abductors.  
Authorities have formed a 12-member committee headed by an additional superintendent of Narayanganj police to supervise the rescue operation.    
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Office called Rizwana over the phone assuring her that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the matter seriously and instructed law enforcers to do their best to rescue her husband.
Inspector General of Police and Director General of Rapid Action Battalion also spoke to her.
Rizwana said she spoke to her husband by phone just about 15 minutes before the abduction. Later, she learnt about it from the driver.
“In my long married life, I never heard that he had any dispute with anyone,” she told The Daily Star.
“I want my husband back safe and unhurt,” said the lawyer and environmentalist, who won Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012 for her "uncompromising courage and impassioned leadership in a campaign of judicial activism in Bangladesh that affirms the people's right to a good environment as nothing less than their right to dignity and life."
In a case filed against seven to eight unknown persons aged between 25 and 35, Rizwana said she filed litigations against many influential people who suffered financial losses.  
"It [the cases] hurt their interests. They might have links with the abduction of my husband,” the case statement reads.
Narayanganj police superintendent also believes the abduction is not an ordinary crime. According to him, it was done in a well-orchestrated manner.
Contacted, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan said, "We are investigating it. We hope to get a positive result in a short time.”
Talking to The Daily Star, Nasrul Hamid said, “We are school friends. He [Siddique] joined the factory 15 years ago as an executive and was running it in his own way.”
The factory remained closed for about a year before Siddique reopened it in February, he added.