Incarcerated Awami League front leader dies in DMCH

An incarcerated leader of an Awami League frontal organisation has died in the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).

Farhad Hossain, 45, was the organising secretary of the Awami Swechhasebak League’s Dhaka North unit.

The Swechhasebak League is the volunteers’ wing of the ruling Awami League.

He was arrested during a police raid conducted to nab suspects of the Aug 13 shooting in Dhaka’s Badda, which left four including local Awami League activists dead.

Police said he was arrested from his office at Badda with contraband drugs.

A case was filed against him over the seizure and the court sent him to jail.

The Jailor of the Dhaka Central Jail, Nesar Alam, said Hossain had been rushed to the DMCH after he suffered a heart attack early in the morning.

Doctors declared him dead when he was taken there around 6am on Wednesday, said hospital police outpost Inspector Mozammel Haque.

Haque, however, could not specify the cause of death.

He told bdnews24.com: “The registry book says he was brought dead. The doctors did not write anything about his ailment.”

On Aug 18, police arrested Farhad Hossain from the organisation office at Maddha Badda with contraband cough syrup Phensedyl and banned club-drug Yaba.

“Thirteen bottles of Phensedyl and 62 Yaba tablets were seized from his office,” said Badda police OC MA Jalil.

Asked whether Hossain was a suspect in the killings of the four people, the police officer said, “Raids are being conducted to nab those suspected to be involved in that incident. He was detained during one of those raids, but was sent to jail in the narcotics case.”

Hossain’s wife Munmun Taslima told reporters at the DMCH, “On Aug 18 night, police had said that my husband was being detained for political reasons. But he was later accused in a narcotics case.”

An incident of shooting in the capital’s Badda area on Aug 13 left several injured. Four, including Swechhasebak League Dhaka North unit’s Literature Affairs Secretary Mahbubur Rahman Gama, later succumbed to their injuries.

On Aug 20, Badda Unit Awami Juba League activist Saidur Rahman was killed in Gazipur during what police described as a ‘shootout’.

According to media reports, Badda locals suspected Saidur’s involvement in the Aug 13 shooting incident.

Juba League is the youth affiliate of the Awami League.