Ex-Rab 11 chief asked for Tk 2cr?

Mohammad Ismail

Members of Rapid Action Battalion-11 picked up an Awami League activist in Narayanganj over three months ago and demanded Tk 2 crore from his family members for releasing him, alleged the victim's family members.
Yesterday, the family members formed a human chain in front of the Siddhirganj Power Station in the port city demanding the law enforcers return him safe and sound.
The allegation comes hot on the heels of the claims that some Rab-11 members were involved in the recent abduction and murder of seven people in Narayanganj.
Introducing themselves as Rab members, some unidentified men picked up Mohammad Ismail, 42, from Painadi area near the Dhaka-Chittagong highway under Siddhirganj Police Station on February 7 evening, said his wife Josna Begum.
A resident of Kanchpur, Ismail is a contractor and an activist of Kanchpur union unit AL under Sonargaon upazila.
A case was filed with the police station on February 10 in connection with the incident. However, there was no mention of the Rab's involvement in the incident.
About 15 days later, Josna received a letter from two men. It asked the family members to pay Tk 2 crore to Lt Col Tareque Sayeed Mohammad, then commanding officer of Rab-11, if they wanted him back alive.
Josna identified the hand writing of the letter to be her husband's.
After receiving the letter, she along with some of her relatives went to Tareque and told him that they have managed Tk 1 crore.
But the Rab official refused to accept any amount below Tk 2 crore and threatened the victim's relatives that if the matter was disclosed to the media, Ismail would not be freed alive.
Josna said they were trying to collect the rest of the ransom money, but in the meantime Tareque was sent on retirement on May 6 over his alleged involvement in the seven-murder.
She claimed that she did not inform the law enforcers about the ransom as her family members were receiving threats from Rab men.
She said they formed the human chain to draw the prime minister's attention to the incident.
Contacted, Rab Director General Mokhlesur Rahman said he was not aware of the complaint made against Tareque by Ismail's family members. If anybody lodges a written complaint with the Rab, the force will probe the incident, he added.