Missing IT expert Zoha back home

Detectives dropped IT expert Tanveer Hassan Zoha home in the capital's Kalabagan area early yesterday, six days after he had gone missing.

Some plainclothes men on a vehicle took him to his house around 1:30am, said Tanveer's uncle Mahbubul Alam.

The law enforcers did not stay there for long, he said, adding that his family members received him at the entrance to the building.

“They [detectives] only said they found him wandering around the airport area,” Mahbubul, a former deputy director general of the Bangladesh Television, told The Daily Star.

Neither the family nor the police could say where Tanveer had been since he was allegedly picked up by some plainclothes men from Dhaka Cantonment area in the early hours of March 17.

Contacted, Maruf Hossain Sorder, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), said Tanveer was found wandering around the Airport Railway Station around 12:30am yesterday.

Later, a team of detectives escorted him to his house, said the DMP official.

Asked if they quizzed Tanveer about his disappearance, Maruf replied in the negative, saying there was no complaint lodged in this connection.

Mahbubul said they did not ask Tanveer about his disappearance as they were relieved to see him back home. “We are hugely relieved. I want to thank the media for its support in finding him.”

“He is distressed. His mental condition is not well and we cannot say whether he is physically ill unless a doctor examines him,” Mahbubul added.

The family also refused to let the media see or talk to him, saying he has been resting at a “safe place” and that their only concern is to see him recovering soon.

Tanveer went missing a few days after he had talked to the media about the $101 million cyber heist of Bangladesh Bank reserve. He had then identified himself as an official of the ICT division.

However, the ICT division on March 14 issued a statement, saying Tanveer had no affiliation with it.

An official of non-governmental organisation Insight Bangladesh Foundation, Tanveer worked with the ICT division of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, said his family members.

The NGO had a project with the ICT division but its contract expired recently, they added.

The 32-year-old man was allegedly picked up from Dhaka Cantonment area by plainclothes men while he was returning to his house with his friend Yamir Ahmed by a CNG auto-rickshaw around 1:00am on March 17.

Talking to reporters later the same day, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Tanveer might have been picked up for the sake of the investigation in connection with the probe into the BB reserve heist.

Tanveer's family went to three police stations to file a general diary but law enforcers refused to accept it.