There was no trace of former Bangladesh ambassador to Vietnam Maroof Zaman, who went missing on Monday. Abdul Latif, officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi police station, yesterday said: “We’ve been trying hard to trace him. We’ve collected the video footage from his house. His mobile phone is switched off. We're trying to identify the three persons.”

Monirul Islam, head of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said at a press conference yesterday that they have been been working with the police to crack the case. “But there is no trace of Maroof Zaman yet,” he added.

Tariqul Anwar, the investigating officer at Dhanmondi police station, said Maroof’s car was found in Khilkhet area near the airport on Tuesday. “Maroof was last seen at Dokkhinkhan around 7:30pm,” he added. Maroof’s daughter, Samiha Zaman filed a general diary (GD) with Dhanmondi police station in this regard on Tuesday.

According to the GD, Maroof left his Dhanmondi residence around 6:30pm to bring her daughter from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. However, he neither went to the airport nor returned home since then.

Family sources said Maroof had called home to ask his domestic help to deliver his laptop to a person. Accordingly, three well-dressed men came to his house and took his laptop, desktop and camera.

They also entered his bedroom. CCTV footage also showed the three men entering Maroof’s house.

Maroof's brother, Rifat Jaman, said after Samiha had called up her father from the airport. But Maroof’s mobile was unreachable. She then called up Rifat and informed him that she could not reach her father over phone. Rifat then rushed to the airport and brought Samiha home.

As Maroof did not return home till yesterday noon, Samiha lodged a general diary with Dhanmondi police station, Rifat said. Maroof Zaman stays on the third floor of a six-storey building in Dhamondi.  Rifat Zaman stays on the fifth floor in the same building.

Maroof joined the Signal Corps of the Bangladesh Army in 1977. But he left the job due to illness. “In 1982, he joined the foreign service. He served as the first secretary to the Bangladesh high commissioner in London. He became Bangladesh’s ambassador to Qatar in 2007 and later to Vietnam,” family sources said.

Rifat said Maroof was the additional director general of the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BISS). He was promoted to additional secretary and retired in 2013.

The incidence of disappearances from different parts of the country, including the capital, has increased alarmingly and the government is clueless about it.

There has been no trace of Dr Mubashar Hasan Cesar, a teacher of North South University, who has remained missing from November 8.