<i>A mother wages a battle</i>
She did everything a mother could possibly do to keep her seven-year-old son with her. She went to court to establish her right to the child. She filed a general diary and even a case.
But nothing could prevent her ex-husband from secretly taking off to Shiliguri in India with the child in his attempt to keep him as far away from the mother as possible. Even if it means leaving the child to be raised parentless in a boarding school.
But luck shone upon the stricken mother, Nusrat Wahid, when the ex-husband, AKM Nurul Fayez Bakul, was arrested by immigration police last Friday, the same day she filed a case.
Now the only thought in her mind is to find a way through the bureaucratic tangle and have her son back in her arms.
Trouble began three years ago when Nusrat, a private university teacher, went through a divorce with Nurul and embarked on a legal tug-of-war to establish her right over her son, Anam Intesar bin Fayez.
On March 11, 2011, she obtained a court order allowing Anam to stay with her from Friday to Sunday every week. Moreover, a few months ago, a High Court order prohibited Nurul from leaving the country.
“He (Nurul) maintained this schedule for a few months but disappeared with my son on December 4,” said Nusrat, adding that she went to Nurul's house but found it locked.
Later, she came to know from some relatives that Nurul was planning to take Anam to India.
“I rushed to Ramna Police Station on January 10 and filed a general diary, requesting police to take measures so that my child could not be taken to India,” said Nusrat.
She handed Anam's passport to the police station, stating that Nurul had forged a machine-readable passport for Anam using a fake address. He had also used Nusrat's name and photograph as the mother, which is a violation of immigration laws.
“I also informed police about the court order prohibiting Nurul from leaving the country. But police failed to take necessary measures,” she said.
Nurul crossed over to India with Anam, undetected, on January 24.
In Friday's case filed with Sutrapur Police Station, Nusrat accused Nurul of passport forgery, kidnapping and violation of the HC order prohibiting Nurul from leaving the country.
The police station immediately sent a wireless message to immigration police, just as Nurul was entering Bangladesh, prompting the arrest.
“We got the court order on January 28 but Nurul crossed the border on January 24,” Immigration Officer-in-Charge at Burimari land port Tanvir Ahmed told The Daily Star.
Nurul was produced yesterday before a Lalmonirhat court, rejected his bail prayer and sent him to jail, reports our Lalmonirhat correspondent.
Nusrat's worries do not end there. “He (Nurul) called me on my cellphone around 4:30am yesterday and said he would kill me as soon as he is released on bail.
“I have been tortured in many ways by my ex-husband in the last three years. Now I want to get my child back and live in peace,” she said.
Talking to The Daily Star in the court, Nurul said he had admitted Anam at Shiliguri Himalayan Resident School in Class 1.
He said Anam was not safe in Bangladesh and that is why he had taken him to India, far away from the family.
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