Ruet student freed 14 days after 'kidnap'

Chhatra League leader Saifuzzaman Sohag, who allegedly was picked up from his Rajshahi home 14 days ago, has been found in Chittagong.

His "abductors" released him blindfolded near a roadside restaurant in Mirsarai in the early hours yesterday, Sohag's family said.

"Sohag phoned me around 4:00am from a call shop and said he had been freed," his father Akkas-uz-Zaman told The Daily Star yesterday afternoon.

"I am overwhelmed with joy and now eagerly am waiting to see him," he said over the phone.

Akkas rushed to Dhaka from Rajshahi as Sohag, a fourth year student of mechanical engineering at Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (Ruet), had told him that he was going there from Chittagong.

On December 10, Sohag was kidnapped from his home by some 15 plainclothes men who identified themselves as members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab). But both the local police and the Rab said they did not arrest him.

Sohag was received by some relatives in Dhaka around 1:00pm before his father arrived there. Both later started for Rajshahi in a microbus.

On arrival in Rajshahi around 9:00pm, he went straight to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for a medical checkup.

After that, Sohag himself told The Daily Star correspondent there how he was freed.

"I was confined to a room. In the early hours, they came to the room, tied my hands behind my back and blindfolded me. They put me on a car, possibly a microbus, and drove on for some time.

"When the car stopped, they dropped me off the car, untied my hands and gave me Tk 550. However, they hadn't removed my blindfold yet.

"After that they sped away and I took off the blindfold and found a call shop with the help of locals," Sohag said, before policemen took him away.

He would be kept in police custody for the night and produced before a court this morning for recording his statement, said Officer-in-Charge Mahbubur Rahman of Rajpara Police Station.

POLICE CLAIM CREDITS

Although the kidnappers released Sohag on their own, police are now claiming the credits, family sources said.

"The police and the Rab did not even extend full cooperation to us. And now they say it is for their efforts that Sohag has been released," said a relative, wishing anonymity, soon after the news of Sohag's release spread around.

The OC of Rajpara Police Station has already asked us not to inform journalists about the matter," he added.

Contacted, OC Mahbubur claimed that they had arrested two persons earlier and took them on remand.

"This put a pressure on the kidnappers and they released Sohag."

Farzadul Islam Miron, 28, a former student of the Ruet, and Ishfaq Yasif Ipu, 21, a second year civil engineering student of the university, were arrested on Saturday and taken on a 3-day police remand.

Contacted, Lt Col Mahbub Alam, commanding officer of Rab-5, told this correspondent, "We have learnt that the police rescued him [Sohag]. They will reveal the real story. We too were trying to rescue him."

He, however, denied any involvement of his men in the kidnapping, as alleged by Sohag's family.

"We did not conduct any raid in that area that night. So there is no room for accusing the Rab of being involved in it."

Police too denied involvement in the incident.

"We investigated the kidnap and found no involvement of any member of the police or the DB (Detective Branch of police)," said Deputy Commissioner AKM Nahidul Islam of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.

Asked who might have kidnapped Sohag, the police official said, "This is what has to be investigated. We will know about the kidnappers when we interrogate Sohag."

MYSTERIOUS CALLS

On December 13, two unknown people called Sohag's father on his cell phone.

"One of them identified himself as a journalist and said my son was admitted to a Barisal hospital and hung up. The other just demanded Tk 1 lakh for my son's release and ended the call," Akkas said.

On Tuesday night, he received another call.

"The caller did not say who he was. He demanded TK 50 lakh. He did not say how or where he would take the money."