According to Alam’s son, Abu Syed Chowdhury Himu, a police case had been filed against Mohammad Chowdhury Alam on June 20, 2010. Five days later, on June 25, police sub inspector Tafazzel Hussein came looking for Alam at around 5 p.m. at his Tejgaon residence. 1 Alam was not home.
That evening, Alam’s driver, Bhaumik, was taking him to a meeting when, at around 9 p.m., he saw a yellow taxicab coming towards their car as they were passing the Metro Garden restaurant at 75 Indira road. He said that when he moved to the side to allow the cab to pass, but the cab driver deliberately collided into their car. Bhaumik said that when he got out of the car to speak to the other driver and assess the damage, the cab sped away and immediately a white microbus pulled up in front of him. Bhaumik says he suspected a trap and jumped back into the car to drive away. But by then seven or eight men in plainclothes had stepped out and surrounded the vehicle. Bhaumik noted that all of the men had the same short haircut. The men pulled Bhaumik out of the car and started hitting him. He said that when he asked who they were, told him that they were law enforcement. The men then pushed Bhaumik aside, pulled Alam out of the car, and shoved him in the microbus which sped north. One of the men stayed back, got into Alam’s car, and drove it in the opposite direction. 2 Alam’s car was found the next day abandoned by the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority center at Karwan bazar. 3
Omar Faruq, a security guard at Metro Garden restaurant at 75 Indira road said that he was on duty the night Alam was allegedly picked up. Corroborating Bhaumik’s account, Faruq said that at around 9 p.m. he saw a yellow taxicab hit a private car and speed off. He said a white microbus then pulled up in front of the private car, seven or eight men got out and surrounded the car, hit the driver several times, and forcefully pulled another man out of the car and shoved him inside the microbus, which sped north. 4
Around 10 p.m., Himu learned of his father’s abduction. 5 He went to Tejgaon Police Station the next morning, but the police refused to file a general diary (GD), saying that the incident fell under the responsibility of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station. When Himu went to the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station on June 30, 2010, the police recorded his complaint that a group of men in plainclothes had abducted his father. 6
On July 18, 2010, Himu filed a writ petition to the high court alleging that his father had been abducted by law enforcement. The next day, the court ordered then-Police Inspector General Nur Mohammad and then-Director General of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Hasan Mahmud Khandaker to immediately investigate the disappearance and report back to the court. Alam’s wife, Hasina Chowdhury, said that six years later the criminal investigation division of the police finally submitted a report to the court concluding that there was no evidence of Alam’s disappearance. “Where will we go to find justice?” she asked.7
Mohammad Chowdhury Alam is still missing.
