‘There was a lack of a sniper’ commenter’s father also in DB custody

Md. Aynal Haque, father of Md. Abu Bakar Siddik who was arrested on the charge of making an objectionable comment on a social media post featuring a photo of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s Rajshahi visit, has also been arrested. Both were later taken into the custody of Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Branch (DB) police.

Special Response Battalion (SRB)-5 arrested Abu Bakar Siddik during a raid in the afternoon on Wednesday (October 21). His father Aynal Haque was also arrested later.

Confirming the matter, Commanding Officer of SRB-5 Lieutenant Colonel Faisal Ishtiaque said, “After the arrest we handed both of them over to the DB. The DB will provide details on this matter.”

Abu Bakar’s home is in Kechuatol area under Chandima police station in Rajshahi city. His father Aynal Haque is a farmer by profession. Abu Bakar Siddik is the eldest among four siblings. He is a first-year student of the History Department at Rajshahi New Government Degree College.

Besides studies, Abu Bakar works transporting vegetables on a van. According to locals, he offers prayers five times a day and is known as a good boy in the area. He is also associated with a group of bikers. The members of the group roam different places together on motorcycles.

Abu Bakar’s mother Asmaul Husna claimed that her son is innocent, hardworking and meritorious. He is being framed in this incident.

According to police, DB and SRB sources, a team of the Cyber Crime Unit of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police and Chandima police station went to Abu Bakar’s house around 2pm on Wednesday. However, he was not found there. Family members did not want to disclose his location, sources claimed.

Around 4pm a team of SRB-5 in plain clothes conducted a raid at his house. Not finding Abu Bakar, they arrested his father Aynal Haque and interrogated him. At one stage Aynal Haque informed that his son was hiding at his maternal uncle’s house in Gholharia village of Hatramchandrapur under Paba upazila. Later a raid was conducted there with Aynal Haque and Abu Bakar was arrested. A mobile phone used by the family was seized at that time. Later the father and son were handed over to the DB of DMP.

On Thursday morning Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Chandima police station Monirul Islam conducted a search at Abu Bakar’s house. No evidence worth seizing was found after searching for about an hour, police said. Only the packaging of a pen drive was seized. Police tried to recover Abu Bakar’s laptop but family members claimed that he did not use a laptop and had none.

Assistant Professor of the History Department at Rajshahi New Government Degree College Shariful Islam said Abu Bakar Siddik is a regular student of the college. He has taken the first-year final examination. However, the result has not been published. The teacher also said he has not seen any bad behaviour from him in the college.

President of the college unit of Chhatra Dal Mahmud Hasan Limon said, “I heard from administration people that Abu Bakar used to do Chhatra League earlier. Now he is supposedly doing Chhatra Shibir. But I have not seen anything in the college. We did not even know him that way.”

Meanwhile, Rajshahi metropolitan president of Chhatra Shibir Imran Nazir said, “There is an attempt going on to put the blame on Shibir whenever something happens. But Abu Bakar Siddik is not anyone of our party.”

OC of Chandima police station Monirul Islam said no information was found on whether Abu Bakar had been arrested before. There is no case against him either. No information on his political affiliation was found either.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman visited Rajshahi last Tuesday. He used a bus of Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) while travelling from the airport to Madrasa Maidan, from there to the religious gathering and back to the airport. At that time numerous people on both sides of the road greeted him. The prime minister also responded to their greetings.

Later a Facebook page named ‘The Beauty of Rajshahi’ posted a photo of the prime minister sitting in the bus. In the comment section of that post Abu Bakar Siddik wrote, “Alas! There was a big opportunity. Only a sniper was lacking.”