Where had he been?

Former Bangladesh ambassador to Vietnam Maroof Zaman returned to his Dhanmondi home in the city early yesterday, over 15 months after he had gone missing.

“After fifteen and a half months, or 467 days... my father is back,” Shabnam Zaman, elder daughter of the former diplomat, wrote in her Facebook page in the evening.

“We would now like to request privacy so that we can process and heal. We have no further comments or details to share at this time,” she said.

She also expressed gratitude to those who had supported their family throughout this period.

Dhanmondi OC Abdul Latif said a police team visited the ex-envoy's house yesterday afternoon.

Maroof, 62, could not say who had “picked him up” and how he returned home as he was sick, the OC said.

The security guard at the building took him to his flat after he had reached near it around 12:45am, Latif added.

Maroof is among a few lucky people who returned home after being abducted or going missing.

Although families of some victims come up with some narratives of captivity and subsequent return of their dear ones, Maroof's family remains tight-lipped.  

The ex-diplomat went missing on December 4, 2017 after he had left his Dhanmondi home in his car to receive his younger daughter Samiha Zaman at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 7:30pm.

Around that time, Maroof called the landline phone at his house and asked the house help “to allow a man to take his laptop”, his brother Rifat had said earlier.

Three well-dressed men in caps went to his house and took his laptop, desktop and camera.

Maroof had been unreachable since then. His car was later found abandoned in the city's Khilkhet area, Rifat added.

Although there were CCTV footages of the three men at the house, law enforcers could not identify them.