More than 14 years after senior BNP leader Ilias Ali and his driver vanished without a trace from Dhaka, a former Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) intelligence officer has been taken into custody.
Md Saifur Rahman, a retired Bangladesh Air Force wing commander, was detained on Tuesday and placed in military custody, Armed Forces sources confirmed to TIMES of Bangladesh.
Saifur, then a BAF squadron leader, was serving in RAB’s intelligence wing when Ilias, a former lawmaker and organising secretary of the party, disappeared on the night of 17 April 2012.
Saifur later retired from the Air Force, worked as a commercial airline pilot, and is the son-in-law of former army chief General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed.
When approached for comment, an official from the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate said, “We will inform you about the matter later.”
The breakthrough follows testimony at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on 21 June.
Testifying in a landmark crimes-against-humanity case covering over 100 alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, Army Warrant Officer Imrul Kayes directly implicated Saifur alongside his former superior, then-Lieutenant Colonel Ziaul Ahsan.
Ilias and his chauffeur were allegedly snatched from Banani Road 2 as they drove home from the Hotel Ruposhi Bangla, formerly Dhaka Sheraton.
State agencies consistently denied holding them, and the former Awami League administration never launched a probe into their disappearance. Their ultimate fate remains unknown.
However, following the fall of the Awami League government in the mass uprising on 5 August 2024, Ilias’s wife, Tahsina Rushdir Luna, lodged a complaint with the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, which was subsequently referred to the ICT.
“Even after more than a decade, a path has finally opened to uncover the truth and secure justice,” Luna, now a member of parliament for Sylhet-2, told TIMES on Tuesday night.
“The tribunal is investigating, and those responsible are being identified. I hope every single perpetrator is brought to book,” she said.
Warrant Officer Imrul told the ICT in his testimony that a plainclothes RAB team led by Ziaul Ahsan had been waiting in a microbus at the Mohakhali flyover to pick up Ilias Ali. Saifur was also part of the RAB team. However, the team failed to detain Ilias Ali there.
The following day, reports emerged that a plainclothes team had picked up Ilias Ali and his driver from Banani.
ICT Prosecutor Tanvir Hassan Zoha confirmed that digital forensics point squarely at RAB’s intelligence wing. “The responsibility of those involved will be presented before the court as evidence,” he said.
While Zoha noted no digital evidence currently links the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), he added, “Everything should become clearer once Saifur is interrogated under remand.”
A meticulously planned hit
The arrest aligns with a 2022 investigative report by Netra News, which exposed a secret RAB-1 inquiry sent to RAB Headquarters, the DGFI, and the Directorate of Military Intelligence.
The internal report concluded that the abduction was a textbook, highly coordinated operation carried out by military officers deputed to RAB’s intelligence wing.
Investigators mapped the plot using three suspicious mobile numbers detected near the scene, leading to a cluster of eight burner phones bought with fake IDs from an Uttara shop, Desh Telecom.
Operating on Citycell’s CDMA network, which state agencies could not easily intercept at the time, the phones were activated after 11:00 pm on 17 April, used exclusively to communicate among the hit squad, and switched off permanently by 1:00 am on 18 April.
According to the findings, the operation relied on three distinct units working in tandem. First, a spotter team tracked Ilias from Hotel Ruposhi Bangla relaying his real-time movements to the ground squad.
Waiting at the scene on Banani Road 2 was the snatch squad tasked with the physical abduction, who operated four burner phones active around the Airport and Joar Sahara areas.
Crucially, a third command team provided continuous mobile surveillance support directly from the National Monitoring Centre at DGFI Headquarters, steering the hit from above, said the report.
The disappearance of Ilias Ali caused nationwide outrage. Despite contacting the police, RAB and other law enforcement agencies, his wife Luna was unable to obtain any information about his whereabouts. She later met then prime minister Sheikh Hasina and appealed to her to help locate Ilias Ali.
Although Hasina assured her that she would instruct law enforcement agencies to find Ilias Ali, but no government agency made any further effort to do so.
