Jhenaidah AL leader Mintu may be arrested if his answers are inadequate: DB chief

Jhenaidah Awami League General Secretary Shaidul Karim Mintu may be arrested if he fails to provide satisfactory answers during the interrogation regarding the murder of MP Anwarul Azim Anar, according to Additional Commissioner Harunor Rashid.

Mintu was summoned for questioning based on information obtained from Shimul Bhuiyan, who was arrested in connection with the Anar murder case, and another Jhenaidah Awami League leader, Kazi Kamal Ahmed Babu, also known as Gas Babu.

Rashid, also chief of the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, shared this information with reporters at their headquarters on Wednesday.

If Mintu’s response is found unsatisfactory, legal action will be taken, he said.

Mintu was widely reported to have been arrested on Tuesday after his name came up in the murder case. Although there were reports that he was arrested in Dhanmondi, it has not been officially confirmed by police or detectives.

Police arrested Babu, relief and social welfare secretary of the ruling party’s Jhenaidah district unit, on suspicion of involvement in the murder.

“Babu has been remanded for seven days and is currently in our custody. He confessed that he had a meeting with Shimul, the main perpetrator of the Anar murder, inside a car at Faridpur’s Bhanga. There, Shimul showed him the picture after killing Anar,” said the DB chief.

Regarding what Mintu would be asked, he said, "... A popular MP was murdered, and even after seeing the picture, they did not react. Our investigator wants to know why."

Meanwhile, Anar's daughter Mumtarin Ferdoush Dorin appealed to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal for his assistance in ensuring that the true culprits do not evade justice in the murder case. The minister assured her of his support.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting with the home minister, Dorin expressed her concerns upon learning that efforts were being made from various places to secure the release of those who had been arrested.

She also said she had learnt money was involved in the murder.

Referring to Jhenaidah Awami League leader Babu, she said, "Who provided this money, why they did so, why someone filed a general diary saying that his three mobile phones were lost, these issues need to be properly investigated."

Earlier, on Jun 5, Babu filed a general diary at the police station after losing three of his mobile phones.

He was picked up from his house in the late hours of Jun 6.

Anar's younger daughter Dorin believes that the DB has some information about those who have been arrested.

Anar, a three-time MP from Jhenaidah-4 and president of the Kaliganj Upazila unit of the Awami League, went to India for medical treatment on May 11.

Initially, he stayed at the house of his friend and gold trader Gopal Biswas in Kolkata’s Baranagar. However, he went out one day and never came back.

Later, Gopal filed a GD at the local police station, triggering investigations in both countries. On the morning of May 22, Indian media reported that MP Anar had been murdered at an apartment in New Town.

Based on information provided by Indian police, detective police in Bangladesh arrested three suspects. They were also taken into remand for interrogation.

The three are Amanulla Sayeed alias Shimul Bhuiyan alias Shihab aka Fazl Mohammad Bhuiyan, 56, Tanvir Bhuiyan, 30, and Celesty Rahman, 22.

Detective police also arrested another individual in Jashore in connection with the murder.

The detainee, Saiful Alam Molla Member, is an associate of Shimul Bhuiyan, leader of the extremist outfit Purbo Banglar Communist Party, who has been arrested on murder charges.

Police said Anar’s childhood friend Shaheen, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was the ‘mastermind’ behind the murder. The killing was carried out by extremist leader Amanulla aka Shimul. Anar went to the flat rented by Shaheen for a meeting the day after he reached Kolkata. The criminals killed him there.

The CID in West Bengal arrested a butcher called Jihad Howlader, who admitted to chopping up Anar’s body for disposal under Shaheen’s orders. Four more Bangladeshis helped him commit the crime, he said.

A team of Indian detective police came to Bangladesh on May 24 and interrogated the three arrestees. Then a three-membered team from the Detective Branch of police in Bangladesh went to Kolkata on May 25.

They interrogated butcher Jihad and took him along on an inspection of the Sanjeeva Gardens apartment where Anar was said to have been killed.

While the DB officers were in Kolkata, some pieces of flesh were recovered from the septic tank of the apartment building.

West Bengal media reported that police learnt a lot about the murder by interrogating Siam.

The CID took Siam on a raid near a canal in Bijoyganj Bazar Thana and recovered bones from a bush in the area.

Citing Kolkata police, Indian media reported Siam helped dispose of the body in the canal after it was cut into pieces. Jihad had accompanied him at the time.

The Indian foreign ministry said it would provide ‘full support’ to Bangladesh in investigating Anar’s killing.