DHAKA/NEW YORK, April 22: Intelligence officials in Dhaka handed over a young US citizen of Bangladeshi descent to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of links with ‘terrorists plotting to carry out attacks’ in the United States.

Authorities in New York confirmed the arrest had been carried out on their request, alleging that the suspect, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, was an accomplice of Syed Haris Ahmed, a US citizen of Pakistan origin, arrested earlier this month.

According to the family of Mr Sadequee, 19, Bangladesh’s intelligence picked him up at Baridhara on Monday night while he was returning home with his wife in a car.

Soon after the arrest, Mr Sadequee’s father, Sardar Sharif, informed senior officials of the matter and filed a case with the police.

“We tried to rescue the man. We are trying to find clues to the kidnap,” a Dhaka-based daily quoted an official as saying.

Sardar Sharif, the father, said at a briefing at the National Press Club that ‘plainclothesmen, equipped with wireless sets and firearms, picked up my son on April 17 when he and his wife were returning home after shopping’.

“I do not know why the intelligence people picked up my son and why they would not provide me with information,” said Sardar. “I believe my son is not involved in any terror activities. He worked with a non-governmental organisation in Atlanta (USA).”

He said he had contacted several persons, including officials at the US embassy in Dhaka, but nobody would tell him why the teenager had been handed over to the FBI.

“If my son is involved with any terror organisation, he might be punished. But how they could hand over my son to intelligence of other countries without informing us,” Sardar said. “Our intelligence agencies informed me that they would hand over my son to the FBI.”

Mr Sharif said his son lived in Atlanta along with his mother and came to Bangladesh on Aug 20 last year.

The CNN, in a report on Thursday titled ‘Atlanta Muslim Faces Terror Charge’, said Sadequee was handed over to the FBI and put on a plane to New York, where he was expected to face charges.

Sadequee’s sisters said they were shocked by the news, affirming that their brother had no ties to terrorism. They said her brother works for an Atlanta-based non-profit group, Raksha.

In New York, a federal judge unsealed papers showing that the FBI had charged Ehsanul Islam Sadequee with plotting to attack ‘strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike, to include oil refineries and military bases’.

In the affidavit, filed in support of an arrest warrant, the FBI described Messrs Haris and Sadequee as ‘angry Muslim extremists’.

Haris Ahmed was arrested on March 23 after a grand jury indicted him on a charge of material support of terrorism.

According to a sworn statement of Michael Scherck, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, much of the information implicating Mr Sadequee came from interviews with Haris Ahmed last month. Both men are being held at undisclosed locations.