Islamic preacher Abu Taw Haa Muhammad Adnan, who has been found a week after he mysteriously disappeared, was “hiding in a friend’s home due to personal reasons”, the police say.
He was taken to the local office of the police’s Detective Branch via Kotwali Police Station in Rangpur after he returned to his father-in-law's home in the city following Friday prayers.
The three other people, who were accompanying Taw Haa at the time of his disappearance, have also returned to their homes.
They had travelled to Dhaka’s Gabtoli from Rangpur and then to Gaibandha, said Abu Maruf Hossain, deputy commissioner of Rangpur Metropolitan Police.
The Islamic preacher stayed at the home of his friend Siam’s mother in Gaibandha, Maruf said, without revealing the full identity of Siam.
Amir Uddin Fayez, one of the three people who had been accompanying Taw Haa, was also brought to the DB office.
Taw Haa and Amir Uddin’s families had filed two general diaries over the incident.
A one-time cricketer from Rangpur, Taw Haa studied at Carmichael College. After graduating in philosophy, he studied at Al Jamia Assalafia Madrasa next to his house.
In addition to teaching Arabic online, he visited various mosques across the country and delivered Friday sermons, according to family members. He has also amassed a following of over 50,000 on Facebook.
His family home is near the Ahle Hadith Mosque on Rangpur city's Central Road, but he lives with his first wife Habiba Noor and their two children in a rented home in the Shalban Mistripara area.
Sabikunnahar, his second wife, lives in a house in Dhaka's Pallabi, where Taw Haa runs a girls' madrasa in two flats on the ground floor.
His mother Azeda Begum lodged a general diary with Rangpur Kotwali Police on the afternoon of Jun 11, alleging that Taw Haa had 'disappeared' on his way to Dhaka with three companions in a car two days earlier.
Following his disappearance, Sabikunnahar sought help from various government departments, including the Prime Minister's Office, Police Headquarters and RAB headquarters, to find her husband.
According to her letter to the PMO, Taw Haa left Rangpur for Dhaka in a private vehicle on Jun 8.
He was accompanied by Abdul Muhith, Mohammad Firoz and driver Amir Uddin. All four of them, including the car, subsequently disappeared without a trace.
With speculation over Taw Haa's disappearance swirling across social media, Sabikunnahar said her husband was embroiled in a disagreement with a faction of clerics over religious doctrine.
"Because of this, our cries for help did not get much of a response from the well-known scholars. On the contrary, ordinary people and his followers were much more vocal about the situation online."
