Ruet BCL leader ‘kidnapped’ using Rab identity

A leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) at Rajshahi University of Engineering Technology (Ruet) was allegedly kidnapped from his home using identity of the elite force Rapid Action Battalion.

Saifuzzaman Sohag, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and BCL’s information and research secretary of Ruet unit, was taken away by some 15 persons early Wednesday, but local police and Rab next morning expressed their ignorance of the incident, his family members alleged.

Sohag’s father Akkas-Uzzaman in a press conference organised at Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industries auditorium today alleged that the group of plainclothes people went to their Terokhadia Poschimpara house around 3:00am on a white microbus.

They identified themselves as Rab members and stormed into the house as soon as the gate was opened after they inisisted, said his father. “They kept us confied and went through Sohag's laptop.”

“Later they took Sohag and his laptop and camera with them and told us to get in touch with Rajpara police station in the morning,” he added.

Sohag’s mother Shirin Zaman told journalists that the persons asked about a woman student during the raid, reports our Rajshahi correspondent.

She said that Sohag is married and his wife is a student of Dhaka Medical College and her gold ornaments went missing since the raid.

The family demanded the authorities produce Sohag before a court if he had committed any crime.

Mahmudur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Rajpara Police Station, told The Daily Star that Sohag’s father filed a general diary.  

"We could not trace him yet,” he said.

Maj M Abdus Salam, deputy commanding officer of Rab-5 in Rajshahi, told reporters that Sohag's father also filed a complaint with the elite force.

But he said Rab forces did not arrest him and the forces could not trace him.