Two abducted Brac staff still traceless

The news came a day after she sat for her fourth-year final examinations, and since then she could not concentrate on her study.

Fatematuz Zohra Labony, 20, skipped the exams when informed that her father Shawkat Ali, 50, a Brac official, was abducted by unknown people in Afghanistan on March 17.

“The news came like a bolt from the blue. We didn't even take our meal on that night. My mother just completed her Esha prayers and I was studying in our residence,” said the architecture student of the Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology in Dhaka.

Criminals abducted engineer Shawkat Ali and Sirajul Islam Sumon, 37, another Bangladeshi Brac official, along with two local Afghan staff of the NGO in Kunduz Province.

Family members of engineer Shawkat Ali, stare blankly not knowing what to do as it has been more than two weeks since the Brac officials were abducted by some unknown people in Afghanistan. Photos: Star

The Afghans, however, were released later, and no militant group claimed responsibility for the abduction. But Brac officials said they had good news about their two colleagues.

Labony said, “My father used to talk to my grandmother, mother, me and my younger brother 10 to 12 times every day. As he used to go on field supervision on Thursdays, he had to call us at night.”

It was also a Thursday night when the family received a phone call from Afghanistan, but it was not Shawkat but Salam Ahmed, an Afghan and Brac senior official, who informed the family of the abduction.

Family members of engineer Sirajul Islam Sumon stare blankly not knowing what to do as it has been more than two weeks since the Brac officials were abducted by some unknown people in Afghanistan. Photos: Star

“I saw a missed call from Afghanistan on my mobile phone after finishing prayers. So I dialled the number though it was unknown. But the caller cut it off and returned the call. Then he gave us the bad news about my husband,” said Anjum Ara Lucky, 40, wife of the abducted Brac official.

The Daily Star talked to the family of Shawkat at his Azampur residence in Uttara yesterday.

“I don't understand what I should do now. Actually I have lost control on my thinking,” she said.

Shawkat has been working with Brac Afghanistan for eight or nine years. He used to visit his country twice a year. He last came home on January 29 this year and left for Afghanistan on February 20.

The family wonders how a man like Shawkat, who used to follow all values of Islam in his everyday life, could be a target of any Islamist group in Afghanistan.

“My husband has learnt the Afghan language and cherished its values and culture,” said Anjum.

Meanwhile, Shahnaz Parvin, mother of victim Sirajul Islam, urged the government to rescue her son. “I want my son back safely,” she told our Pabna correspondent.

Both Shawkat and Sirajul hail from Pabna. The families are in distress since their abduction more than two weeks ago.

M Anowar Hossain, country representative of Brac Afghanistan, said they had got good news about the two.

“They (victims) are well. Inshallah we will be able to give the families good news about them very soon,” he told The Daily Star yesterday by phone from Afghanistan.