Eight others didn't return home in 11 days
Sayeed Anwar Khan, 18, a resident of Banani, is missing since December 5. Police, so far, failed to find him out. Family members told the Daily Observer on Friday that Sayeed has not yet returned home.
Father of Sayeed filed a GD with Banani Police Station in this connection. Sayeed, a student of an English Medium school, was also a well-known karate player. He went to attend a karate function at Kalabagan area on that fateful day.
Over the last 11 days, nine youths have gone missing in similar circumstances throughout the country. All the missing are either studying or working in reputed institutions, or are part of the privileged society. Coincidentally, this matches the profile of the youths responsible for the terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery.
Another of the nine missing persons who disappeared recently and caused a stir in the country has returned home on Sunday. The youth, Jakir Hossain Biplob, a fourth-year student of Pabna Medical College, was handed over to his family on Sunday afternoon, Rangpur police said.
Abdullah Al Faruk, Additional Superintendent of Rangpur told this correspondent, "He fled from home out of anger."
Among the eight, one fourth-year student of Pabna Medical College Tanvir Ahmed Tonoy, is missing since November 3. Tanvir is yet to return home.
Of the others, North South University students Safayet Hossain, 24, and Zayen Hossain Khan Pavel, 23, and Sobuj alias Sujon, 25, and Mehedi Hasan, 27, also went missing on December 1. They were last seen dining together at a restaurant in Banani. Care Medical College student Imran Farhat, a resident of the Dhaka Cantonment area, disappeared on November 29. Finally, Ahsan Habib, an employee of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), has remained untraceable since December 6.
Police believe these missing youth may have been radicalised by militants.
The issue of youths going missing in Bangladesh first received attention after the deadly Holey Artisan Bakery attack - that killed 29 people mostly foreigners in an upstate area of Dhaka - where all five militants belonging to affluent families had been missing for many months before resurfacing as militants.
Since the attack, many more reports have surfaced of young students going missing for months and their whereabouts remaining unknown.
Among the Gulshan attackers, almost all were part of similarly privileged society and all disappeared willingly. Of the deceased militants, Nibras Islam was a student of Monash University in Malaysia, Rohan Imtiaz was a student of Scholastica School, Meer Saameh Mubasher was an 'O' Level candidate from Sunnydale School, Shafiqul Islam Ujjal graduated from the Bogra Government Azizul Haque College and Khairul Islam Payel was a Madrasha student.
Meanwhile, the Solakiya attacker Abir Rahman was a BBA student at the North South University.
Security experts said that the attack on the Holey restaurant has created an atmosphere of fear in people's minds whenever the question of missing youths rears up.
Following the anti-militancy drives, during which a number of militant leaders were either captured or killed, Law enforcement officials claimed that the militant organisation was weakening.
However, security experts claimed that the radicalisation process was not stopped, despite this weakening of the organisation. As such, law enforcers must remain vigilant for radicalised individuals who may emerge in the future.
However, militancy is neither established nor removable in a single day, and therefore caution and vigilance is paramount, he added. "The Detective Branch of police is also working on it," police source said.
