Mother files police compliant finding son on list of missing youths

The family of one of the 10 missing youths, whose names and photos have appeared on a police list after the Gulshan cafe attack, has filed a complaint in Lakshmipur.

Schoolteacher Tahera Begum said in the general diary (GD) that she did not know her son ATM Tajuddin Kausar, an expatriate in Australia, was missing.

She filed the GD on Sunday, saying she had come to know about her son going missing from media reports.

After it emerged that five of the Gulshan cafe attackers, all dead in the assault to rescue the hostages, had been missing for months, police provided the list of 10 youths who are also missing for months.

Tajuddin’s name, photo and passport number were included in the list.

His mother Tahera told bdnews24.com he came home for the last time when his father, former railways official Abdullah Bhuiyan, fell ill in 2013 after he travelled to Australia in 2006.

His father died in September that year after Tajuddin returned to Australia, but Tahera failed to contact him to give the news, she said.

Tajuddin called from an unknown number and heard of his father’s death around a year later, the mother said.

“He stopped sending money. She called me sometime before the Ramadan and inquired about my health,” she said.

This was the last time she spoke to him, according to Tahera.

She said her son got Australian citizenship after marrying an Aussie woman in 2008.

His wife converted to Islam and they have two children, Tahera said.

Lakshmipur acting Superintendent of Police Md Shariful Islam told bdnews24.com that Tajuddin went to Australia on student visa in 2006.

“He disappeared there. We don’t know where he is now. We are trying to locate him,” he said.

The eldest of four siblings, Tajuddin completed primary education at Atiatali Government Primary School, secondary education at Lakshmipur Adarsha Samad Government High School and higher secondary at Lakshmipur Government College in 1999.

He graduated from American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) in Dhaka in computer science in 2004.

He took a job at an Australian firm in 2008 after getting a post-graduate degree from the University of New South Wales, his mother said.

His teachers and friends in Lakshmipur said Tajuddin was very polite and they had not seen any sign of radicalisation in him.