Farhad Mazhar dined in Khulna, restaurateur claims as police continue search

A restaurant owner in Khulna has claimed to have seen Farhad Mazhar as the police are searching for the columnist who has been reportedly missing since leaving his house in Dhaka Monday morning.

After tracking his mobile phone, the police launched a drive in the southwestern region of the country in the evening.

The search zoomed in on the New Market area of Khulna City in the night after the owner of New Grill House restaurant, Abdul Mannan, said Mazhar dined in his eatery around 8pm.

"He left after eating rice, lentil and vegetables. He wore lungi and a white head scarf and appeared very tired," said Mannan. 

Asked how he became certain that he saw Mazhar, the restaurateur told the media that he had not recognised him at first sight. "I informed the RAB after seeing his photo on TV," he said. 

Khulna RAB-6 Commanding Officer Khandaker Rafiqul Islam told bdnews24.com that they were conducting a search operation centring the area on being informed by Mannan. 

Earlier, the police raided several places in the Khulna region after tracking Mazhar's mobile phone, but could not find him.

After Mazhar went missing, 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 later called his wife on her mobile phone and asked her to get Tk 3.5 million in ransom, he said.

The police later said Mazhar phoned his wife Farida Akhter five times until afternoon.

"They (alleged abductors) agreed to bring the ransom down to Tk 2 million. No final decision on the location and time of the transaction has been reached," an official, requesting anonymity, told bdnews24.com.

He also said the police were checking Mazhar's laptop and phone call list.

bdnews24.com reached the columnist's wife by phone. "I am busy, can't talk now," she said before hanging up.

Mazhar's family friend and writer Goutam Das said he was called away by some people in the morning.

He called his family 24 minutes after he had left home – to say he was being abducted, according to Das.  

Mazhar made the call from his own phone, a family member told bdnews24.com correspondent Liton Haider.

“He said he’ll be killed unless his kidnappers are paid Tk 3.5 million.”

The family could not name any suspect behind the abduction.

Mazhar lived in a building called Haque Garden at Shyamali’s Ring Road. Senior police officers, including the Adabar OC, have gone over to the house.

The BNP has pointed the finger at the government, blaming Mazhar’s disappearance “on one of its agencies”.

A self-proclaimed Marxist, Mazhar stirred a 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, appearing on TV talk shows, likened several media outlets to terrorists, and said the violent shutdowns enforced by the BNP-led alliance were ‘justified’.

During a meeting, he had advised BNP chief Khaleda Zia to start a tougher anti-government movement.

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.