Who's Responsible?
Syed Mohammad Nurul Absar, a 42-year-old restaurant worker in London, was picked up by police at Chittagong on the strength of a fax that was purported to have been sent by Interpol in London. Absar was identified as an explosive expert, arms dealer and an 'internationally reputed terrorist who sneaked into Bangladesh to carry out destructive activities in different strategic establishments in the country.' Very impressive list of indictment no doubt, but did the police verify the origin of the message and authenticity of Interpol's involvement before swooping down on an apparently innocent citizen? Chittagong police was so perplexed with this highly dangerous 'terrorist' that they sent him to Dhaka for further grilling by experts. For seven days police interrogated him about his whereabouts, intentions and possible involvement in terrorist activities but finally came up empty-handed. At the end of the ordeal the joint interrogation team successfully discovered that the said message was 'a hoax' and allegations against Absar were 'false' as the message came from a commercial fax shop in London. Since there was no charge to substantiate Absar's involvement in any terrorist activity he was released by the CMM court in Chittagong on 14 January.
This sordid episode gives rise to so many questions regarding public safety from the keepers of law. If the police cannot differentiate between truth and falsehood then there must be reason to be afraid of undue harassment and mental agony. Why the police did act on impulse rather than logic? It was not too difficult for them to verify a message that was supposed to have been sent from Interpol. We would strongly suggest for caution in such cases in future so that they don't make a fool of themselves and warn people responsible for such irresponsible act.
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