Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-A British man who counterterrorism officers in Bangladesh stated had confessed to planning the murders of two bloggers earlier this year, was not arrested on Tuesday as claimed by the police, eyewitnesses have informed Al Jazeera.
The guard and caretaker of the block of flats – the place Tawhidul Rahman, 58, had been dwelling together with his sister and sick mom since coming back from London two years in the past – advised Al Jazeera on Thursday that Rahman was taken away by regulation enforcement officers on the afternoon of Might 28, almost three months in the past, reports Suffieldtimes.com.
Later that day, Rahman’s sister, heart specialist Nasera Begum, filed a written grievance with the native police station alleging that detective department police had taken her brother away from their household residence.
An identical allegation was additionally made in a felony case filed with the police.
Begum additionally wrote a letter to the British Excessive Fee on June three, informing them of her brother’s alleged abduction, and asking for help.
In accordance with his sister, Rahman’s whereabouts remained unknown for almost three months till earlier this week when in entrance of the media, alleging that they have been members of the self-professed Islamist group, the Ansarullah Bangla Group.
The opposite two detained males, Sadek Ali alias Mithu, 28, and Aminul Mollik, 35, who appeared in courtroom with Rahman on Wednesday, stated that that they had additionally been picked up on totally different dates in Might by regulation enforcement authorities, with each claiming to have been tortured.
Mufti Mahmud Khan, an RAB spokesperson, denied that Rahman had been detained beforehand.
“What we now have stated to the press is the truth,” he stated. “Many occasions criminals give comparable statements. That is the techniques of the criminals. They flee away from their households,” Khan informed Al Jazeera.
DISAPPEARANCES WIDESPREAD
Odhikhar, a human rights organisation, stated that such disappearances have been more and more widespread in Bangladesh with regulation enforcement officers failing to deliver individuals they detain to courtroom inside 24 hours, because the regulation requires.
“There are allegations from the victims’ households that their relations are stored illegally in detention, successfully disappeared, with no-one figuring out the place they have been for weeks or months, after which out of the blue police ‘arresting them’,” stated Adilur Rahman Khan, Secretary of Odhikar.
“There are additionally instances of individuals by no means reappearing.”
At a RAB information convention on Tuesday, officers claimed that Rahman had been picked up outdoors a well known kebab restaurant within the nation’s capital, Dhaka, within the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The officers stated that in the course of the subsequent 12 hours, when the British IT employee was of their custody, he admitted to having deliberate the homicide of the Bangladeshi-origin US citizen Avijt Roy in Dhaka in February, and Ananta Bijoy Das in Sylhet in early Might.
Because the starting of the yr, 4 bloggers have been hacked to demise with machetes by self-proclaimed Islamist teams, apparently on account of their important writings on Islam.
The Ansarullah Bangla Group had earlier claimed duty for the deaths of Roy and Das via on-line statements.
RECOGNIZED WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA
Tawhidul’s sister rejected outright the likelihood that her brother was concerned in any killings.
“He’s a quiet pious man. He’s additionally very sick and was recognized within the UK with schizophrenia and bipolar dysfunction. There isn’t any method he might have deliberate these murders. He not often went out of the flat,” she stated.
Begum stated that her brother returned to Bangladesh in Might 2013 when his mom fell ailing.
Maher Ali, the safety guard of the constructing the place Tawhidul’s household lived, informed Al Jazeera that Rahman was taken away from the constructing by 4 males in civilian gown on Might 28.
“4 males entered the gate and requested me to go together with them to the flat the place Tawhidul Rahman lives,” he stated.
Ali then referred to as the caretaker of the constructing to see what was happening.
“I went to the flat, however I used to be not let into the flat,” the caretaker, Swapon Barua, stated.
“I then went downstairs and utilizing the intercom phoned up, and requested [Tawhidul Rahman] who these males have been and he stated that they have been from the administration and DB [detective branch]. I advised him to name his sister,” Barua stated.
Nasera says that she acquired a name when she was at work.
“My brother stated that some individuals had come for him,” Begum stated.
“I stated let me converse to them and this man then informed me that my brother can be taken away for half an hour for interrogation.
“I stated no, don’t take him anyplace, He’s sick. I then requested him [the officer]who he was, however he hung up the telephone.”
‘STORED QUIET’
On Wednesday, the Justice of the Peace courtroom remanded all three males in police custody for seven days for questioning.
Earlier than the remand order, ALM Kamal Uddin, Rahman’s lawyer, informed the courtroom that his shopper had been illegally detained, and submitted a replica of the grievance to the police.
“The Justice of the Peace didn’t say something about this. He stored quiet,” the lawyer stated.
A spokesperson for the British Excessive Fee stated she was unable to make any remark about correspondence acquired by the fee.
“All I can say is that we’re offering consular help to a British citizen,” she stated.
In September final yr, one other Bangladeshi-origin British man was arrested over allegations that he had come to Bangladesh to recruit individuals for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
His household additionally claimed that he was detained by the police one week earlier than the police stated he had been arrested.
“What I need to know is the place was my brother for 81 days, after her was taken from his house?” Begum requested.
BBN/SK/AD
