Air Commodore Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury, Security Analyst : There should be neutral investigations to verify the accusations of the kidnappings of Awami League leaders. I have doubts about the authenticity about the ‘kidnapping’ of a certain Awami Leauge leader; to me it seems to be a staged scene. After all, we have seen staged kidnappings in the past. These are done for many reasons. The Farhad Mazhar incident has been emulated several times. However, there should be police investigations in order to verify the authenticity of the incident. If it legitimately is a kidnapping, the perpetrators should be caught. And in the case of it being staged, the participants should be punished – for spreading panic through deception.
After thorough investigations it was proved without a shadow of doubt that the Farhad Mazhar kidnapping was indeed staged. I do not know whether he was sentenced for staging a kidnapping. However, if this incident repeats itself in the future, it will cause great panic and confusion among the public. If it can be proved that such an incident was staged then the perpetrators should definitely be punished – even if the perpetrators themselves are part of law enforcement agencies. In no way should this occurrence be taken lightly; because it has sown panic and confusion among the public. Nevertheless, such incidents keep repeating, we see them on newspapers, but the motives behind them remain a mystery. The motives should be investigated. The media has an important role to play in this regard, because they can perform independent investigations, make informative and investigative reports. The media has an extraordinary responsibility to unravel the truth. The incident of Awami League leader Parvez Hossain signing a stamp paper after returning from a ‘kidnapping’ is also quite doubtful. Does he have any hostility with anyone? Any familial dispute? Any political rivalry or opposition? I believe that investigations should be made to answer such questions. There could be some sort of land or familial dispute, but the important point is that the investigation should be totally neutral in nature. Proper actions should be taken against the main culprits behind this incident – especially if this was all staged.
Based on an interview by Ashiq Rahman, translated by Abrar Hussain