Father stops PM’s convoy at Secretariat, abducted son rescued hours later

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s intervention prompted a swift police operation today to rescue an abducted schoolboy.

The ninth-grader, 14, son of Khondkar Shamim Hasan -- a darkroom assistant at the Press Information Department under the information ministry -- was abducted by miscreants from in front of Shantinagar’s Popular Diagnostic Centre after finishing coaching classes around 3:30pm.

According to the family, he was returning home on his bicycle when two men intercepted him and forced him into a nearby abandoned building.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Shamim said the abductors took his son to the seventh floor of a 10-storey under-construction building in the area, beat him, and snatched his mobile phone.

“They called my wife from my son’s phone and demanded Tk 50,000, threatening to beat him further if we failed to pay. When we said we could not afford that amount, they reduced the demand to Tk 30,000.”

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Photo: Collected

Shamim was at the Secretariat when he learned about the abduction. He immediately went to Ramna Police Station. Upon realising that Prime Minister Tarique had not yet left the office, he rushed back to the Secretariat.

As the PM’s motorcade was about to leave the premises, Shamim attempted to approach him but was stopped by security personnel. He explained the urgency of the situation and was then allowed to speak.

“The prime minister was surrounded by many people. But hearing the urgency in my voice, he asked me to tell him everything,” Shamim said, adding that Tarique then immediately instructed the deputy commissioner of Ramna Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and ordered that the boy be rescued as soon as possible.

“Within an hour, police rescued my son from an abandoned building.”

A senior DMP official, preferring anonymity, confirmed to this newspaper that Tarique had called and directed the Ramna Division DC to take immediate action.

“Following the call, police launched a drive and, within about an hour, rescued the boy from the seventh floor of an abandoned building adjacent to Popular Diagnostic Centre in Shantinagar. However, when the miscreants sensed police presence, they fled the area.”

The child was later handed over to his family, he said, adding that no one has been arrested yet in this connection.