Columnist Farhad Mazhar in detectives’ custody

A police team first brought Mazhar to Dhaka’s Adabor Police Station from Jessore around 9am on Tuesday, said Sub-Inspector Sakhawat Hossain.

Mazhar’s wife Farida Akhter, daughter Chaumtoli Huq and other family members were also at the police station.

Senior officials would decide what would happen next, said SI Hossain. Mazhar had breakfast at the station.

Deputy Commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Masudur Rahman confirmed that he was taken to the DB office

“He has been taken to the detective branch office, so we can speak with him. We will decide our next step afterwards.”

On Monday, Mazhar's family reported to police that he was missing since the early morning.

The search for him zoomed in on the southwestern region of the country after police tracked his mobile phone to the area in the evening.

Detectives searched several places in Khulna but could not find him.

He was eventually found on a bus travelling to Dhaka from the southwestern city late on Monday.

Mazhar's family claims he was abducted, but law enforcers believe the poet-columnist 'staged a drama'.

Police's Deputy Inspector General for Khulna Range Didar Ahmed told the media on Monday that the columnist was found to be in stable condition.

"He was travelling like a person in control of his faculties. He was carrying a bag with a T-shirt and some money in it. He didn't even forget to take his mobile phone charger."

According to media reports, the passenger's name on the bus ticket found with him was 'Gafur'

After Mazhar went missing early on Monday morning, a police complaint was filed by one of his relatives around 10am.

The 70-year-old left his home in Dhaka’s Shyamali shortly after 5:00am following a phone call, said Adabar Police SI Mohsin Ali.

Mazhar lives in the Haque Garden apartments at Shyamali’s Ring Road.

Police said a microbus was parked in front of a nearby hospital around the same time, which was not seen later.

Senior police officer Biplob Kumar Sarkar, who was involved in the investigation, said that Mazhar was not carrying his usual phone.

"He uses an iPhone with a Grameenphone number. But the phone with him was a regular handset with a Robi connection; very few people knew of this phone," Deputy Commissioner Sarkar told bdnews24.com.

A self-proclaimed Marxist, Mazhar stirred controversy by opposing Ganajagaran Mancha, a mass campaign that started in 2013 calling for maximum penalty to war criminals from Bangladesh’s liberation struggle.

But he was widely criticised by left-leaning parties for his statements supporting Hifazat-e-Islam, a radical Islamist outfit that also opposed the Shahbagh-based campaign.

Mazhar received an economics degree in the US after graduating in pharmacy from Dhaka University.

He returned to Bangladesh to start a neo-agricultural movement through his organisation UBINIG

Known for his grey ponytail and preference for ‘lungis’, Mazhar edits a publication called Chintaa, or Thought