‘Abductors made me sign stamp papers, white sheets’

A ruling Awami League leader, who was found hours after he was picked up in broad daylight in front of his house in Dhaka’s Lalmatia yesterday, said he was forced to sign two Tk 300-stamp papers and two blank sheets before he was dropped off in Purbachal area.

Talking to The Daily Star, Parvez Hossain Sarker, president of Comilla North AL, said after he finished his Friday prayers and was heading home, a car stopped him in front of his house.

A few men came out of the car and hit him in the head with a pistol before shoving him into the car, Parvez was talking to our staff correspondent at his home.

“Soon after they picked me up inside the car, they blindfolded me and put a black mask over my face,” the AL leader said.

“They handcuffed me and also immediately used chloroform to make me senseless,” he said.

Parvez was placed on the backseat of the car where he became senseless in a minute or two, he recalls.

After a few hours, when he returned to his senses but was still groggy he noticed it was already dark outside. His kidnappers, who are yet to be identified, gave him a packet of biriyani and some water, of which he only managed to drink some water, he said.

Later, around half an hour before he was dropped off near Kanchan Bridge in Rupganj, Narayanganj, the kidnappers went to get the stamp papers and two blank sheets keeping him inside the car.

“Later, they asked me to sign on the stamp papers and white sheets,” he said.

When he protested, the kidnappers threatened him that they would kill him in crossfire.

Parvez was made to give eight signatures both in English and Bangla on the stamp papers and white sheets, said Parvez.

Around 10:40pm, he was dropped off near Kanchan Bridge in a blindfolded state, Parvez said.

A few minutes after he was dropped off, Parvez removed his blinds and walked towards a fuel store from where he called his wife.