Missing photojournalist Kajol found on Benapole border

Photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, who disappeared about two months ago after he was named in a digital security case, has been found on the Benapole border.

Border guards arrested him in Raghunathpur on charges of trespass and turned him in to the police early Sunday, said Mamun Khan, chief of Benapole Port Police Station.

“BGB has filed a case of illegal intrusion against him. We’ll send him to court today,” he said.

An official from Benapole Police Station informed Kajol’s family by phone at around 2.45 am on Sunday, said his wife Julia Ferdousi.

Kajol’s family filed a general diary with the police on Mar 12 as they were unable to reach him after he left home at Bakshibazar in Dhaka on Mar 10.

Kajol, who had previously worked as a photojournalist for Dainik Samakal and Banik Barta, is the editor of a fortnightly magazine Pakkhakal.

He was named in a case filed over a report on the people ‘involved’ in disgraced ruling party operative Shamima Noor Papia’s alleged escort services out of The Westin Dhaka.

In the digital security case filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police by Magura-1 MP Saifuzzaman Shikhor on Mar 9, Kajol was co-accused with Manab Zamin Editor Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Manab Zamin reporter Al Amin and 29 other Facebook users who commented on or shared the report.

A security camera video released by Amnesty International on March 21 showed Kajol being followed before what appeared to be an enforced disappearance. In the video shared on Twitter, some unidentified men were also seen tampering with his motorcycle outside his office.