Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members launched a drive in Shibbari area of the city on Monday evening to rescue poet and columnist Farhad Mazhar who was reportedly kidnapped from the capital.

A team of RAB 6 started the drive around 6:30pm after tracking the location of his mobile phone, said its commanding officer Khandkar Rafiqul Islam.

The elite force looked for the columnist at several houses of the area but could not trace him till filing of this around 7:30pm. The drive was continuing.

Earlier, the wife of Farhad Mazhar told police he telephoned early on Monday to tell her he was being taken away by a man and feared he would be killed.

Shortly afterwards, she received a ransom demand for her husband.

‘His wife sent a man to the (police) station who told us Mazhar called few hours later after he left and said that he was being taken away and would get killed,’ said duty officer Aleya Akhter.

‘After a while someone called his wife from the same phone and asked a ransom of 3.5 million taka ($43,317).’

Police said they were investigating but had not yet registered a case as the family had not formally reported him missing.

CCTV footage of Mazhar’s neighbourhood in the capital Dhaka showed him walking away with a man early in the morning.

The 69-year-old is a supporter of the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Mazhar had on Sunday taken part in a press conference to protest a spate of lynchings of Muslims in India, a key ally of the current regime in Bangladesh.