The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bdnews24.com, Dhaka

The Rapid Action Battalion whisked away top terror and expelled Jubo League leader Liakat Hossain from his father-in-law's residence in Dhanmondi yesterday, wife Farhana Hossain said. Additional director general of the elite anticrime force colonel Gulzar Uddin Ahmed told bdnews24.com over telephone that they had not arrested anybody by the name of Liakat on Wednesday.

National and international human-rights organisations have accused RAB of killing people without trial in the name of crossfire or gun battle. It does not even acknowledge arrest, according to allegations.

One of the 23 top criminals on the police list made during the previous BNP-led government, Liakat was arrested on Oct. 1, 2003 and was released by a High Court bail order on Sept. 4 this year.

"At around six in the morning, some six-seven armed people in plainclothes knocked at our door. When my father opened the door, the visitors identified themselves as members of Rapid Action Battalion," Farhana said to bdnews24.com.

"They wanted to know where Liakat slept. As [Liakat] opened the door, they gagged him, held him with his arms behind his back and whisked him away in a microbus," she said.

They also took away five mobile phone sets from the house, Farhan said.