'Abducted' doc's father dismayed with cop probe

The father of a doctor apparently abducted on October 15 yesterday expressed disappointment over police investigations not focusing on real issues and not being able to identify till date a seemingly police pick-up van tailgating the abductors' microbus.

Addressing a press conference in the capital's Bangladesh Crime Reporters' Association, AKM Nurul Alam claimed that the identification was a matter of one or two days for police and also the first thing necessary for tracing Muhammed Iqbal Mahmud.

CCTV footage showed seven to eight people taking the medical officer of the Directorate General of Health Services into the microbus at the Science Laboratory intersection soon after he alighted from a bus.

The tailgating vehicle caused Nurul to believe that the abductors were law enforcers. “They would have obviously taken immediate steps if anyone else picked him up,” he said. 

“We are living on hope as we in the past have seen that abducted people were shown (arrested) even after one year,” he said, protesting two reports of a Bangla daily linking Iqbal to militancy.

The case's investigation officer, Detective Branch Inspector Ariful Hoque, said Criminal Investigation Department was working on getting the number plate and they on passengers of the bus to see if Iqbal was being followed.