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Bandarban resort hotelier kidnapped for Tk 2cr

Arakanese Army' outfit robs foreign tourists in overnight heist, search for abducted owner proves futile

Our Correspondent, Bandarban
An unnamed indigenous outfit abducted a resort hotel owner on Monday night and demanded a ransom ofTk 2 crore for his release in the second such incident in seven days in restive Bandarban.
Witnesses said a gang of 15 broke into Ri Gri Miong, the restaurant of Hillside Resort, at about 8:00pm and kidnapped at gunpoint Hasan
Mahbub Bablu, one of the hotel owners, in Milonclihari, some four kilometres southeast of the district town.
The operatives in AA (Arakanese ArmyJ-embossed army uniform and camouflage helmet robbed three foreign tourists of money and credit cards in the 15-minuteheist.
At least 24 foreign tourists - 13 Sri Lankans, seven Americans, three Frenchmen and one German --were
slaying overnight in the hotel that earned wide popularity for its beautiful location in rolling hills with die Shangu river flowing at die bottom.
"An operadvc pointed his AK-47 rifle al him (Bablu) and forced him to give money and the key to the cash lopker," tour official Zemy said, adding five others intimidated the foreign visitors into giving money andcreditcards. "The gang threatened us not to inform army or police about it," said Bablu's brother Hasan Monsur, also co-owner of the resort hotel, a unit of Guide Tours Limitedin Dhaka.
The abduction underlined security fears in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), often rocked by waves of violence between the pro-peace pact Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity and its rival United People's Democratic Front in the wake of the 1997 agreement that ended two decades of bush war.
Joint forces in 11 groups have carried out a series of raids on suspected hideouts since Tuesday morning and scoured outlying Bepchhara village, where the 40-year-old was believed to bein captivity.
But the security forces could not trace Bablu to the village that saw men fleeing home for fear of arrest, police told The Daily Star.
Guide Tours that established Hillside Resort on five acres of gentle slopes in September 2001 also launched searches with the help of locals but returned empty-handed.
Seventeen foreign tourists left the hotel on Tuesday and seven others left yesterday, but Hasan Mahmud Khokon, another co-owner of the hotel, said: "The tourists checked out on schedule notin fear."
The district administration deployed two police teams to the hotel, as security was tightened in and around the tourist spot.
Army, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and police held an impromptu meeting
in Bandarban, one of the three hill districts, and decided to provide foreign tourists with security escorts in an effort to allay fears triggered by the kidnap, said Deputy Commissioner Hafizur Rahman Bhuiyan.
Hotel authorities filed an abduction case with Bandarban Police Station.
Locals believe the group operating from Chhangya close to town has a role in the abduction that came after apparently the same gang's ransom threat to villagers to pay Tk 1 lakh by February 10.
"The operatives prowl the Shangu riverbanks in army and BDR uniforms," said alocal resident, asking not to be named.
"The hotel management did not respond to our repeated requests for taking security measures," Bhuiyan said.
But the Hillside Resort director said the management could not afford a police or ansar team for security, adding: "We will have to spend up to Tk 40,000 a month, if we hire a security team."
Acting Superintendent of Police Mohammed Muslim and senior army officials visited the scene.
An unidentified gang on January 26 abducted a brick trader, Nasir Uddin, from Lama upazila in Bandarban with a history of ransom-motivated abductions. Police rescued the 26-year-old businessman from deep forest in Naikhanchhari upazila on February 2.