Islamic speaker Abu Twa-haa Muhammad Adnan, was in hiding at his friend’s house in Gaibandha for personal reasons, police said.
Deputy Commissioner (Crime) Maruf Hossain disclosed the information at a briefing in Rangpur Metropolitan Detective Police Office on Friday.
He said: "During interrogation, Adnan told the police that he called his wife from Gabtali in the capital on June 10 for the last time. Then he turned off the mobile. He then went to a friend’s house at Trimohoni under Gaibandha Sadar.”
Since then Adnan did not contact anyone as he was in hiding at that friend’s house for personal reasons, the police official added.
Adnan, who reportedly went missing on June 10, returned to his in-law house in Rangpur at 2:30 pm on Friday.
Adnan’s associates, who also went missing with him, have also returned to their respective homes.
Upon receiving information, Kotwali police station Officer in-Charge (OC) Abdur Rashid and his team visited Adnan’s house. Adnan was later taken to Rangpur Detective Branch (DB) of Police’s office for questioning.
Adnan’s disappearance came to light on Monday when his family sought Prime Minister’s Sheikh Hasina’s intervention to find him.
On Wednesday, Adnan’s wife Sabikunnahar held a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU), where she said Adnan was returning to Dhaka from Rangpur when he went missing in the middle of the night.
He was travelling with his associates Firoz and Muhid, and their car driver Amir.
Sabikunnahar said that Adnan had shared his live location at 2:37am (June 11) via WhatsApp from Gabtoli, in Dhaka around 18 minutes away from home. She found his phone switched off at around 3am. Amir’s phone could not be reached either.
She further said she tried to file a general diary with Darussalam police station, but they refused to record it saying that the location was not under their jurisdiction. Pallabi police station initially refused to file the GD, but later registered the complaint. Adnan’s mother filed a GD with Rangpur Kotwali police station.
Sabikunnahar said she suspected her husband had been targeted for his lectures on geo-political issues, shared widely on YouTube and Facebook by his followers.
