Families of three of 10 missing Bangladesh youths also ‘missing’, two others from NSU

Families of the three of the 10 youths on a police list of missing persons, purportedly Islamist militants, are also reportedly missing.

Two others among the missing youths are from privately run North South University, which has two of its students killed by security forces during recent attacks by militants. 

Two of those, brothers Ibrahim Hasan Khan and Zunaid Khan, lived at Basundhara Residential Area while another, Ashraf Mohammad Islam, at Panthapath in Dhaka.

No-one was found in their houses on Tuesday.

Security guards and neighbours said the families have gone abroad. No close relatives could be found either.

Shahadat Hossain Bachchu, a neighbour of the Khan brothers at Bashundhara, said their father Munir Hasan Khan was an expatriate working in Saudi Arabia.

He said the family has been abroad for around a year.

The building’s caretaker said a person, identifying himself as Munir’s son-in-law, paid the service charge of the flat in April.

A security guard at Ashraf’s house in Panthapath said he had not come for around a year.

His parents and sisters lived in the house, but they ‘went abroad’ before the Eid.

Ashraf’s neighbour Miju Ahmed said he had come to know that Ashraf’s name and photo appeared on the police list.

“His father, a lawyer, attended the flat owners’ meeting. I know nothing else,” he said.

At least 22 persons, including 17 foreigners and two policemen, were killed in an attack by Islamist militants on a cafe in Gulshan on July 1.

Security forces said six attackers were killed during the raid to rescue hostages from the cafe.

The Islamic State has reportedly claimed the attack and published photos of five gunmen claiming they carried out the carnage.

All of them were youths missing for months.

The security forces then released names and photos of 10 youths who have also been missing for months.

In another attack at Sholakia in Kishoreganj, a suspected militant died in a gunfight with police. He and one of the Gulshan attackers are from the NSU.

Now it emerges that two of the 10 missing youths are also from the private university.

They have been identified as Mohammad Basharuzzaman from Rajshahi and Junnun Shikder from Jigatola in Dhaka.

Basharuzzaman had gone missing from his in-law’s house at Tejgaon six to seven months ago, his relatives said.

Junnun’s father Wahidur Rahman told bdnews24.com his son was arrested along with Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Jashimuddin Rahmani in 2014 and he secured bail after a year.

He left home eight months ago and later said he was in Malaysia, Wahidur said.

Two others of the missing youths have been identified as ATM Tajuddin Kausar, and Mohammad Saifullah Ojaki, both  expatriates ‘living in Australia and Japan’ respectively.

Ojaki is actually Sujit Debnath from Brahmanbarhia. His family said he had converted to Islam in Japan.

Police identified the three other missing youths as Nazibullah Ansari from Chanpainawabganj, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury from Sylhet and Zubaidur Rahim from Dhanmondi in Dhaka.

bdnews24.com is yet to independently verify their identities.

[Additional input from Brahmanbarhia and Rajshahi correspondents]