"They took my son. I want to face that man and tell him please return my Jamal, I know you have abducted my Jamal," she tells any stranger she faces in her residence. Her grandson, a sad look on his young face, asks grandmother to sit quietly.

The house has been a tale of sadness ever since two years ago, On July 24, 2003 the family's bread-earner and a popular businessman, Jamaluddin Ahmed Chowdhury, was abducted. The family awaits his return till date, although soon after the abduction the police mediated a payment of Tk 25 lakh as ransom for his return. The abductors' smartness was reflected in the way they communicated with the family using Jamaluddin's own mobile set throughout the ordeal. Moreover, they refrained from using the mobile set to contact anyone else, knowing well that all communications from that set were tracked down, police sources said. Soon after the payment of the ransom, the perpetrators turned off the phone.

Jamaluddin is now presumed dead at the hands of his abductors, who according to people from all walks of life in Chittagong are well known for their crimes and notoriety. And the abduction of Jamaluddin has visibly shaken the business community of this port city, who have in their own capacity done everything to get Jamaluddin back alive.

In another room, Jamaluddin's wife, Nazma Akhtar, moans in pain. Critically ill, she refuses to travel to India for further treatment, fearing that the abductors would do harm to her three sons, who recently, in a press conference, openly accused the ruling party Member of Parliament from Anwara, Sarwar Jamal Nizam, and his brother, Maruf Nizam, of orchestrating the abduction.

"My mother refuses treatment and she is terrified to think about our safety," said a soft spoken Farman Reza Chowdhury, adding that they had accused the ruling party MP because all roads related to the abduction lead to his doorstep. The only reason behind such animosity was the growing popularity of his father in Anwara area, he said.

"When the driver of the abductors' vehicle, Sobhan, gave a confessional statement to the police, he named some of the closest allies of the Member of Parliament as active participants in the abduction," said Chowdhury.

"After Sobhan's confession, things were confusing to us because until then we thought some local musclemen like Gitthu Nasir (killed in a cross fire recently) might have abducted our father for money. But later, when the MP and his men started opposing everything we were doing to rescue our father, we started asking questions about why he was opposing our moves instead of helping us find our father," Chowdhury said.

"Compared to big businessmen in Chittagong, we are not at all rich. But our father always helped promote the cause of the poor in Anwara and became more popular than anyone there and that probably raised a few eyebrows among his opponents, who feared that his rise could bring their downfall in seeking a party nomination for the next elections," he said.

Since the abduction, Jamaluddin's family has been forced to shut down their garment factory and a restaurant. The only source of income for the family is now the steel and iron shop that the family runs in the city.

Sarwar Jamal Nizam could not be reached despite repeated attempts. But recently in a statement sent to different newspapers in Chittagong the MP refuted the allegations against him and his brother and said that implicating him and his brother two years after Jamaluddin's abduction bore serious doubts about the intentions of the complainants.