Bangladesh journalist says he was targeted by abductors for news he covered

Golam Sarwar, the Chattogram journalist who was rescued after going missing for four days, has said he was abducted and brutally tortured for covering news.

Sarwar could not specify the news for which he was abducted.

He added that his abductors also wanted to send a message to other journalists through his abduction.

Sarwar, a staff correspondent of weekly Ajker Surjodoy at its Chattogram Bureau, is also an executive editor of online outlet Citnews24.

Then the Chattogram Journalists’ Union staged protests after Sarwar went missing last Thursday.

Locals informed the police after seeing him lying unconscious next to a canal near Kumira Bazar on Sunday evening.

Police rescued Sarwar from there and he was still in hospital care on Monday.

"Please don’t hit me. I won’t cover news anymore,” Sarwar was saying in a video during his rescue that went viral on social media.

Sarwar told bdnews24.com that he was taken to an unknown place and beaten with a wooden plank while the abductors, who appeared to be professionals, used a belt to tie him.

“They were beating and asking me whether I would ever cover any news again,” Sarwar said.

Sarwar said  he left his Battery Lane residence in the port city around Wednesday midnight to reach his home town in Chandnaish Upazila. He hailed a motorcycle ride to go to the Amanat Bridge area to catch a bus.

Another man got on the motorcycle and covered Sarwar’s face with a piece of cloth. Sarwar became unconscious at the time.

He said there were four people in the house where he was kept. One of them was speaking the Chattogram dialect and three others were speaking Bengali.

Sarwar disclosed some information in the car while he was being taken to hospital, Kotowali Police Station OC Md Mohsin told bdnews24.com on Monday.