Siddique freed but mystery remains unresolved

Businessman Abu Bakar Siddique, husband of green activist Syeda Rizwana Hasan, was freed by the abductors 35 hours after his abduction but neither the abductors could be traced nor the motive behind his abduction could be unearthed till Friday afternoon. “I’m not sure why I was abducted. Money might be the reason behind it,” he said while making his deposition at a court in Narayanganj over his abduction. Siddique, the husband of Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association (Bela), deposed before a senior judicial magistrate in the Friday afternoon.The Superintendent of Police (SP), Narayanganj, said that the magistrate has recorded his deposition under Section 164. “Senior Judicial Magistrate Begum Chandni Rupam started recoding his statement since 1:15pm today,” he said. In a dramatic turn of the incident, Siddique's captors dropped him near Bangla College at Mirpur in Dhaka around 11:00pm yesterday, about 35 hours after his abduction from Fatulla in Narayanganj city. Court sources said, in his deposition, Siddique said: “They (captors) had crossed ferry twice. They had kept me on a ground floor of a house as I did not have to climb stairs. I think the house is near an airport because I could hear sounds of plane taking off from there,” he added. While talking to the journalists after the deposition, Siddique said: “I was returning to Dhaka from the office in Narayanganj when a microbus knocked my car from behind. When I got down from my car, the pushed me inside the microbus, blindfolded me and tied up my hands and legs. They took me to a house after three hours and later the next day, one of their members left me near the Ansar camp at Mirpur 1 at night,” he said. Earlier, he had said the abductors released him near the Ansar Camp around midnight with his eyes blindfolded and gave him Tk 300. In reply to a query by a journalist today, Siddique said: “I never thought I will return alive. I still do not feel safe; I have to be more careful.” Siddique was taken to the court after a medical check-up, according to a news agency.