N'ganj city councillor kidnapped

Ward Councillor Nazrul Islam and his four associates were abducted in Narayanganj today.    

Following the incident, followers of the councillor vandalised at least 12 vehicles at Signboard area on Dhaka-Narayanganj link road and blocked it for half an hour.

Police and Rab dispersed them by charging batons.

Nazrul Islam, councillor of ward-2, and his associates -- Tajul, Swapan, Liton and Jahangir, Nazrul's driver, were kidnapped from Adalatpara area around 1:45pm.

They were leaving the court area after Nazrul, former general secretary of Narayanganj Chhatra League, got bail in a case, said Nazrul's wife Selina Islam. 

They were abducted along with their car. Police recovered the car in an abandoned condition at Rajendrapur in Gazipur around 9:00pm.

Selina claimed Nur Hossain, councillor of ward-4, and Haji Mohammad Yasin, general secretary of Siddhirganj unit of Awami League, were behind the abduction.

“They have rivalries with my husband. They picked him up. I want my husband back, safe and unhurt,” she said.

But Nur Hossain, also vice-president of Siddhirganj unit of AL, refuted the allegation.

Syed Nurul Islam, superintendent of Narayanganj Police, said they were trying to rescue the abductees.

Nazrul is an accused in at least 15 cases. He was sentenced to death by a lower court in the advocate Babar Ali killing case, but was later acquitted by the High Court, he added.

Meanwhile, a Rab-1 team on Saturday night arrested nine people for abducting a college student on April 8 from the capital's airport area.

The arrested are Masud Rana, Mohammad Rajib, Mir Noman, Mofazzal Hossain, Ershad Ali, Abdur Razzak, Lebu Mia, Osman Gani and Sumaiya Sharmin.

Four of the arrestees kidnapped Mir Redwan Ahmed, a student at Milestone College in Uttara, Rab Media Wing Director Habibur Rahman told a press briefing at the Rab headquarters.

The five others were in the planning. Of the arrestees, Noman is a cousin of the victim, he added.

The gang freed Redwan on April 11 upon Tk 24 lakh in ransom.