Just wanted him back, no question of compromise: BELA chief

Syeda Rizwana Hasan says she only wished safe return of her abducted husband and did not go for a compromise with anyone for that.

The Executive Director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) sought to dispel murmurs of a deal with the government on Friday afternoon while speaking to reporters at her Central Road residence in Dhaka.

Her husband Abu Bakar Siddique was beside her at the time. He was taken away on Wednesday from Narayanganj and released in the early hours of Friday at Mirpur’s Ansar Camp area in the capital.

Responding to queries, Hasan said, “I only wanted my husband safely back. There is no dispute with the government. And that’s why reaching an agreement (with it) is out of the question.”

On Thursday, she had pleaded authorities to include in their probe the people behind the businesses and projects that suffered financially because of her activism.

Environmental lawyer Syeda Rizwana Hasan and her husband Abu Bakar Siddique brief reporters at their Central Road residence in Dhaka on Friday. Photo: bdnews24.com

“If any of those affected by my work had made the abduction, they must have been thinking of keeping me occupied with this,” she said when asked about the future of her work for environment.

“But I should warn them,” added the award-winning environment advocate, “I will not deviate from my work at BELA.”

She, however, expressed concern over the safety of her family members.

Hasan also thanked the law enforcers for their effort to bring her husband back.

Siddique, senior manager at a readymade garment factory owned by State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid Bipu, was found by police nearly 35 hours after he was abducted.

He was returning to Dhaka from the factory in Fatulla when he was whisked away by armed assailants from Narayanganj’s Bhuigarh on Wednesday.

He said the abductors ‘dumped’ him in Ansar Camp area. He identified himself as AB Siddique while police were running a security check on an autorickshaw at Kalabagan around 1:30am Friday.

Siddique was taken to Narayanganj in the morning. There, he deposed before a court after a medical check-up at the office of the Superintendent of Police.

Siddique and Hasan spoke to journalists after returning to their home in Dhaka at 5pm.

He briefed the reporters there about the events he went through in the last two days.