Missing Farhad Mazhar found on bus in Jessore after 18-hour 'drama'

The RAB has dramatically found columnist and controversial activist Farhad Mazhar on a bus in Jessore's Noapara ending a frantic 18-hour search after he reportedly went missing from Dhaka.

Mazhar dined in Khulna: Restaurateur

Mazhar was found on a bus around 11:30pm on Monday and later taken to Abhaynagar Police Station, according to the RAB.

The columnist was travelling back to Dhaka, Khulna RAB-6 Commanding Officer Khandaker Rafiqul Islam told bdnews24.com.

He took the bus at 9:15pm in Khulna's Shibbari, the RAB official said and added that he would be kept at the RAB camp in Khulna for the night.

His family said they are happy with the efforts of the law enforcers to rescue him.

His wife Farida Akhter, however, told bdnews24.com they were still worried.

"I spoke a bit with him via the RAB's phone at night, but our anxiety is not going away until he returns home," she said at their home in the capital's Adabor.

Thanking the law enforcers, she said, "Everything is possible for the law-enforcement agencies if they try."

Two hours ago at 10pm, speaking to the media, she sought help from government high-ups to rescue her husband.

One Shahrear Polock claimed in a Facebook post that he was on the bus too.

"I was returning from Khulna by a Hanif Paribahan bus. It stopped suddenly at Noapara. The supervisor was not replying to our queries (when we asked why the bus stopped). After around 40 minutes, three RAB vehicles arrived and searched the bus. And rescued from the back seat was none other than the missing poet Farhad Mazhar," he wrote in the post.

The family claimed abduction, but the law enforcers believe the poet-columnist 'staged a drama'.

Police's Deputy Inspector General for Khulna Range Didar Ahmed briefed the media about finding Mazhar after Monday midnight.

He said the columnist was found to be in a stable condition.

"He was travelling like a healthy person. 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," said Didar.

Asked whether it was a 'drama staged by the columnist', the DIG said, "Initially, it appears so. First conversations with him and the circumstances indicate that he was travelling on his own.”

"We'll have to investigate it more to be sure."

The search for Mazhar zoomed in on the southwestern region of the country after the police tracked his mobile phone there in the evening. Detectives searched several places in Khulna but could not find him.

A restaurant owner in Khulna City later claimed he saw the activist dining in his eatery in New Market area around 8pm. The law enforcers intensified the search in the area then.

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

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

RAB official Rafiqul said the elite police unit deduced that Mazhar was returning to Dhaka after he was spotted in a Khulna restaurant. "We later traced him to Noapara.”

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 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.

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 Chief Crimes 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 lives in a building called Haque Garden at Shyamali’s Ring Road. Senior police officers, including the Adabar OC, went over to the house after hearing the news.

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.