The rise of Nur Hossain - from truck driver’s helper to Awami League leader

Once a truck driver’s assistant, Nur Hossain rose to become an influential man in Narayanganj by hobnobbing with political party figures, including those of the BNP and the Awami League.

The prime accused in the sensational seven-murder case has as many as 22 cases against him for four murders, extortion,  and running illegal sand and stone-chip businesses, according to police.
 
“He is wanted in 13 of the cases. We will produce him in court in all of them,” said Superintendent of Narayanganj police Khandker Mohid Uddin, a day after Hossain was brought back from India.
 
Even while Nur Hossain was being held in an Indian jail, a Narayanganj court sentenced him to a year’s imprisonment on a wildlife-related violation of the law.
 
Narayanganj Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court sent him to jail in 11 of these cases on Friday.

Nur Hossain made his way into politics as a Krishak League member in 1992, according to locals. 
He later switched sides to join the BNP, helped by the then BNP lawmaker Giasuddin, and went on to become chairman of the Siddhirganj Union Parishad.
 
When the Awami League came to power in 1996, he did a quick somersault to join the party with ample backing from local MP Shamim Osman.
 
Later, he became president of the Kanchpur chapter of Bangladesh Truck Driver-Labourers’ Union.
 

Between 2001 and 2008, the ‘listed criminal’ remained in hiding. The last caretaker government went to the extent of seeking Interpol help for his arrest.

With the ninth parliamentary election bringing the Awami League back to power, Hossain resurfaced in Narayanganj and was elected councillor of Ward-4 in the Narayanganj City Corporation polls held in October 2011.

Erstwhile Siddhirganj municipality administrator and BNP leader Abdul Matin Prodhan saw the rise of Hossain closely.

“Media covered his wrongdoings several times. There is nothing to say again how notorious he is,” Prodhan said.  

After the seven murders in April last year, he sought MP Osman’s help in a

phone call

, which was leaked and published in media later.

“Brother, I’m in great trouble. I’m uneducated. I’ve made many mistakes...Your’e like my father. I love you so much,” Hossain was heard telling Osman.

The Awami League MP admitted in a

media conference

that he spoke to Hossain over telephone. He defended himself saying the report “was not complete and was motivated.”

Police documents show the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority had sued Hossain in 2010 for running a sand and stone-chip business by illegally occupying the banks of the Shitalakkhya in violation of a High Court order.

In the case filed with the Siddhirganj Police Station, he was also accused of hindering government work, threatening public servants, and grabbing a large plot of land (800 decimals) on the riverbank.

The government mounted nearly 10 eviction drives but none succeeded because of dogged resistance by Hossain and his men.

The illegal business run under the Kanchpur bridge was sealed by the last caretaker government but bounced back once the Awami League took office in 2009.

In August 2012, Khandaker Enayetullah, general secretary of the Dhaka Road Transport Association, complained to police and RAB high-ups against extortion by Nur Hossain and his accomplices. 

The complainant accused Hossain’s men of extorting money from vehicles in Shimrail and Kanchpur. They would beat up transport workers and vandalise vehicles, if they were denied the money.

He allegedly used to organise lurid stage shows and illegal gambling in the guise of fairs.

It is also alleged he ran a drug racket at the city corporation truck terminal in Siddhirganj.

Farhad Hossain, a known Hossain henchman, filed a writ petition with the High Court in April 2013, seeking permission to hold fairs and ‘indoor games’.

In response, the High Court issued a rule against meddling in the fairs, and ordered the organisers to refrain from illegal activities in the guise of indoor events.

The expelled vice-president of the Awami League’s Siddhirganj Thana chapter used to move about in a convoy of at least 20 cars, locals say.

Nur Hossain and his associates carried licensed firearms.

Following the seven-murder incident, the district administration in May 2014 cancelled the licences of 11 firearms issued to Nur Hossain and his associates.

After the seven bodies, including those of councillor Nazrul Islam and lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker, were recovered from the Shitalakkhya River on Apr 30 last year, it was alleged that Hossain bribed RAB officials into the murders.

Hossain denied the allegation but later went into hiding.

He was arrested with two accomplices by West Bengal police in June last year.

RAB investigation found involvement of its officials in the murders.
 
Police filed the chargesheets in two cases over murders naming 35, including Hossain and three former RAB officials, in April this year.