Several rooms on the ground floor, stacked with electoral posters, have been kept wide open. Campaigners were also gathering at the house. They had but only one worry, the whereabouts of their candidate.
As of 11:30am yesterday, this was the picture of the house of Jahangir Alam, a rebel Awami League (AL) mayoral aspirant in the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) polls.
On Tuesday night, while campaigning in Tongi area Jahangir was picked up and taken away in a vehicle by some former Chhatra League leaders, according to locals.
Since then he has remained traceless.
A few hours after the incident, news spread that he had met AL chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and decided to withdraw from the race and work for AL-backed candidate Ajmat Ullah.
Ajmat is the secretary of Gazipur district unit Awami League.
Jahangir’s supporters said, moments before his disappearance Jahangir had asked them to continue with the electioneering, although his party high command had repeatedly been asking him to stand aside.
Former vice-president of pro-AL student body Chhatra League, Jahangir resigned as the vice-chairman of Gazipur sadar upazila to contest the GCC polls.
His maternal uncle Mohammad Alamgir yesterday told The Daily Star over the phone that moments after Jahangir had been picked up, his mother received a phone call from party high-ups asking to urge her son to withdraw the candidature.
During yesterday’s visit, The Daily Star found no family member of Jahangir in their rented house, except for a caretaker and a few house helps. The family members could neither be reached over the phone.
Contacted, officer-in-charge of Tongi police station said they had not received any complaint about Jahangir’s disappearance.
Supporters at Jahangir’s house alleged that Ajmat might have been behind the incident.
They said Jahangir had been preparing for the polls over the last few years and that he had even assigned three representatives to coordinate campaigning for him in all 57 wards of the GCC. He also made contributions in academic and religious institutions there.
Preferring anonymity, a supporter of Jahangir said, “The AL high ups gave nomination to Ajmat ignoring opinions of the grassroots level which will result adversely for the party.”
Source: The Daily Star
