The police investigators were still examining the call details of victim and the abductors who collected Tk 1.70 lakh from his family members for his release after he went missing in the night of November 18.

The 57-year-old opposition leader, Abu Bakar, popularly known as Abu, was current chairman of Majidpur Union Parishad in Keshobpur and vice-president at BNP’s Jashore district unit.

He checked in at Metropolitan Hotel in Paltan on November 15 and checked out at 8:30pm on November 18, said the hotel’s reception manager Jahangir Hossain citing the register book.

Jahangir said Abu Bakar first stayed between November 12 and 14 and later check in again on November 15 in a three-bed room 413 and cleared all bills in the morning on November 18.

Hotel boy Akhter Hossain saw Abu Bakar packing his clothes. When asked he said he was leaving but two of his roommates would stay further.
‘I escorted him to the exit in the hope of a tip. He used stairs instead of elevator,’ said Akhter, who spoke last to the victim at the hotel.

Akhter recalled that Abu Bakar was wearing white Panjabi and Pyjamas, and had small bags in both hands when he was set out to leave.

However, when the body was recovered the following day in Buriganga river, the initial photo showed the victim in pyjamas and white vest instead of a panjabi.

The CCTV footage of the hotel the police collected showed that the victim was leaving the hotel at 8:34pm on November 18, and Akhter, among others, was standing at the narrow lobby of the hotel.

Though the family members were not clear about what exactly happened to him afterward but they were contacted by the ‘abductors’. As the abductors were demanding ransom for his release in the night and his phone was found switched off, the family paid Tk 1.7lakh through mobile money transaction.

A police officer who was immediately contacted on the night Abu Bakar went missing told the media that the victim’s phone was traced and the location was changing after it was found switched on at Nawabpur in the capital.
‘Abductors’ in Dhaka later in the night called the family members and asked to send money to a mobile banking accounts located in Chandanaish of Chattogram.

The police said that there were a number of local gangs in the capital who kidnap passers-by and keep them confined for ransom, but they usually do not kill the victim as their main target is to collect money.

The Shahbagh police station officer-in-charge inspector Abul Hasan said the family approached them on November 20 and ‘we launched the investigation, though we are not clear about the motive.’

The body, however, was found in Burigang river in the afternoon of November 19 and was recovered by the Dakkhin Keraniganj police station where an unnatural death case was filed. Inspector Abu Hasan said the investigators were now examining the mobile phone numbers to identify the perpetrators.  The DB investigators were leading the investigation using their technological knowhow.

‘We were asked to assist in the incident on Thursday night and we have started our work,’ said DB’s deputy commissioner Rajib Al Masud.
The Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Friday said that the commission would ask the law enforcement agencies to take necessary steps in this regard after the investigation was over.

When asked why the EC did not take any step when BNP informed that the law enforcers are involved in the disappearance of their leader, the CEC said that it was a criminal matter and the commission has nothing to do on it.

At a press conference on November 22, BNP’s senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi alleged that whereabouts of Abu Bakar was unknown after he was picked up by the law enforcement agencies on November 18.
He said ‘the killing was carried out by the agency under the patronisation of the current government.’ The party denounced the killing and demanded justice.

Abu Bakar’s nephew Humayun Kabir Sumon, also assistant study circle secretary at Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal central unit, said he was set to attend an interview with their party leaders in Gulshan for nomination in Jashore-6 constituency.

Our Correspondent in Jashore reported that after the second namaz-e-janaza in Jashore, BNP leader Abu Bakar was buried at his village Bagdah in Keshabpur. People of all walks of life including leaders and activists of BNP and Awami League attended the janaza.