Columnist Farhad Mazhar kidnapped, rescued from Jessore

The RAB has found columnist Farhad Mazhar in Jessore's Noapara after he reportedly went missing from Dhaka. Mazhar was found on a bus and later taken to Abhaynagar Police Station on Monday night, according to the RAB.

 Khulna RAB-6 Commanding Officer Khandaker Rafiqul Islam told bdnews24.com that the columnist was travelling to Dhaka at the time. He took the bus at 9:15pm in Khulna's Shibari, the RAB official said and added that he would be kept at the RAB camp in Khulna for the night.

His family said  they are happy over the actions taken by the law enforcers to rescue him. The search for Mazhar zoomed in on the southwestern region of the country after the police tracked his mobile phone there in the evening. Detectives searched several places in Khulna but could not find him.

A restaurant owner in Khulna City later claimed he saw the activist dining in his eatery in New Market area around 8pm. The law enforcers intensified the search in the area then. "He left after eating rice, lentil and vegetables. He wore lungi and a white head scarf and appeared very tired," said the restaurateur, Abdul Mannan.

Asked how he became certain that he saw Mazhar, Mannan told the media that he had not recognized him at first sight. "I informed the RAB after seeing his photo on TV," he said. After Mazhar went missing, a police complaint was filed by one of his relatives around 10am.

The 70-year-old left his home in Dhaka's Shyamali shortly after 5:00am, following a phone call, said Adabar Police SI Mohsin Ali Mazhar later called his wife on her mobile phone and asked her to get Tk 3.5 million in ransom, he said.
The police later said Mazhar phoned his wife Farida Akhter five times until afternoon.

"They (alleged abductors) agreed to bring the ransom down to Tk 2 million. No final decision on the location and time of the transaction has been reached," an official, requesting anonymity, told bdnews24.com.He also said the police were checking Mazhar's laptop and phone call list.

bdnews24.com reached the columnist's wife by phone. "I am busy, can't talk now," she said before hanging up. Mazhar's family friend and writer Goutam Das said he was called away by some people in the morning. He called his family 24 minutes after he had left home - to say he was being abducted, according to Das. 

Mazhar made the call from his own phone, a family member told bdnews24.com correspondent Liton Haider."He said he'll be killed unless his kidnappers are paid Tk 3.5 million." The family could not name any suspect behind the abduction.

Mazhar lived in a building called Haque Garden at Shyamali's Ring Road. Senior police officers, including the Adabar OC, have gone over to the house.The BNP has pointed the finger at the government, blaming Mazhar's disappearance "on one of its agencies".

A self-proclaimed Marxist, Mazhar stirred a controversy by opposing Ganajagaran Mancha, a mass campaign that started in 2013 calling for maximum penalty to war criminals from Bangladesh's liberation struggle.

But he was widely criticized by left-leaning parties for his statements supporting Hifazat-e-Islam, a radical Islamist outfit that also opposed the Shahbagh-based campaign. Mazhar, appearing on TV talk shows, likened several media outlets to terrorists, and said the violent shutdowns enforced by the BNP-led alliance were 'justified'.

During a meeting, he had advised BNP chief Khaleda Zia to start a tougher anti-government movement. Mazhar received an economics degree in the US after graduating in pharmacy from Dhaka University.

He returned to Bangladesh to start a neo-agricultural movement through his organization UBINIG.Known for his grey ponytail and preference for 'lungis', Mazhar edits a publication called Chintaa, or Thought.