Seven Cumilla youths missing
Seven youths aged between 17 and 25 have been missing from Cumilla since August 23 with police not ruling out their possible involvement in militancy.
The individuals, who knew each other, did not take any clothes or phones, according to the general diaries filed by their parents with the Kotwali Model Police Station.
A high official of police said the digital footprints of the students indicated that they were radicalised. "We have not found any of them linked to any particular outfit," the officer said, requesting anonymity.
Md Asaduzzaman, chief of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit of police, said, "We are not ruling out the chances of the students' involvement in militancy."
The Anti-Terrorism Unit of police is investigating the matter, said Md Moniruzzaman, deputy inspector general of the unit.
Of the missing individuals, three are HSC students, three others are honours students, and one graduated from a university.
Some of the family members and law enforcers said the 25-year-old graduate was possibly the one who led the younger individuals out of home.
According to one of the general diaries, Rab arrested the graduate in the capital's Uttara and Rab learnt that he took the missing students to Barishal.
However, Rab spokesperson Commander Khandaker Al Moin told The Daily Star that Rab officers were looking for the missing individuals and there was no information to disclose.
The father of one of the HSC students said he received a phone call on the night of August 24 from a man who introduced himself as the manager of a hotel near Chandpur Railway Station.
"My son and his friends were taken to the hotel by police," the father said quoting the hotel manager. The hotel manager asked him to pick up his son from the hotel.
But the hotel manager informed him the next morning that the youths fled.
Khairul Islam, sub-inspector of Notun Bazar Police Outpost in Chandpur, said he noticed five youths sitting in Kalibari area with bags and asked them where they were from.
"The students said that they were from Cumilla and I took them to the hotel and asked the manager to call their parents," he said.
[Our Cumilla correspondent also contributed to this report.]
Comments