5 kidnappers held, Tk 1.8cr seized at Banani

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested five members of a gang of kidnappers from different areas at Uttara of Dhaka and recovered Tk 1.8 crore from their possession today.

The arrests took place 11 days after an industrialist had to pay Tk 2 crore to the kidnappers to get his abducted son released, whom they kidnapped from Banani on May 2.

The abducted boy, Abeer, 8, is the only son of Shahadat Hossain Shameem, managing director of TNZ Group of Companies, and a student of a madrassa in Uttara.

Major Maqsudul Alam of Rab’s media wing told The Daily Star that the elite force arrested gang leader Mizanur Rahman Mizan, Rezaul Karim, Nazrul Islam, Jahiruddin Md Babar and Oliullah early today. Three of them -- Rezaul, Nazrul and Jahir -- are staff of TNZ Group of Companies.

Major Maqsud said they have unearthed the names of 14 involved with the kidnapping.

Rab said Rezaul and Mizan collected relevant information about Abeer and planned the kidnapping four months back. They hired a house at Pallabi to execute their plan.

On May 2, the 14 criminals split into three groups. Mizan followed the private car that was carrying Abeer from his madrassa to Banani.

Under Banani flyover, the criminals stopped the car posing as law enforcement agency members and took the driver and another person from Abeer’s car on their own vehicle around 8:30pm and dropped them at a distant place.

They took Abeer to the hired house at Pallabi and demanded a ransom of Tk 10 crore from his father. Later, they settled for a ransom of Tk 2 crore through bargaining.

On May 6 evening, Abeer was returned to his father in front of Hotel Radisson Blue after the kidnappers received Tk 2 crore in several installments.