The Rapid Action Battalion or RAB has arrested Jubo League leader Khaled Mahmud Bhuiyan for running an illegal casino inside a club in Dhaka.
Published : 18 Sep 2019, 08:14 PM
The elite police unit apprehended Khaled at his residence in the capital's Gulshan on Wednesday evening, said RAB's Media Wing Director Sarwar Bin Kashem .
RAB personnel carried out simultaneous raids on his home and Fakirapool's Young Men's Club in the afternoon.
They also seized three firearms, including two for alleged breach of licence conditions, from the residence, he added.
RAB personnel carried out simultaneous raids on his home and Fakirapool's Young Men's Club in the afternoon.
They also detained 142 people, including two women, from the club. Large quantities of alcohol, gambling equipment and Tk 2.4 million were seized from the establishment, according to Sarwar.
Khaled is the president of the club established in Shahjahanpur's Railway Colony.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a recent meeting of the Awami League's executive committee, expressed indignation over the activities of Jubo League leaders ahead of the crackdown by RAB.
The decision to strip Rezwanul Hoque Chowdhury Shovon and Golam Rabbani of their posts as president and general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League amid allegations of extortion against them was also taken in the same meeting.
According to a few Awami League leaders who attended the meeting, Hasina described some Jubo League leaders as being "worse than Shovon and Rabbani".
"The prime minister said a leader of Jubo League's Dhaka chapter was committing extortion and doing as he pleased. Another was openly carrying a gun. It must be stopped. Those who deal in arms, shelter goons -- they must be warned. This must stop. Otherwise they will be dealt in the same way as militants."
Hasina's statement was pointed at the Jubo League's Dhaka (South) unit President Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat and Organising Secretary Khaled, according to some news reports.
Some Jubo League leaders claimed that Khaled's association with the Awami League only dates back a few years.
"We knew Khaled as a cadre of Jubo Dal (BNP's youth wing) while we were in opposition," said Sohel Shahriar Rana, the general secretary of Chhatra League's Motijheel wing between 2002 and 2011.
"Even though he didn't hold any posts in the organisation, he was still involved in a number of its misdeeds."
"I left for Canada while still being the general secretary of Chhatra League's Motijheel wing. But I later found out that this miscreant Khaled was made the organising secretary of Jubo League South when the committee was announced in 2013."
Shahriar alleges that Khaled harmed him and his family in various ways when they returned to the country.
"Many activists who sacrificed a lot for this organisation were deprived as top criminals, their associates along with Freedom Party cadres and Jubo Dal leaders bought positions in the Jubo League through Khaled."
A few locals and a central leader of Jubo League also claim that Khaled only declared his involvement with the Jubo League after the Awami League came to power.
According to locals, Khaled was known in Motijheel as a criminal and an associate of Freedom Party leaders Syed Nazmul Maksud alias Murad and Jafor Ahmed alias Manik in Motijheel.
Through their growing influence in the area, Manik and Murad became rivals of BNP leader Mirza Abbas and were listed as 'top criminals' during the rule of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami coalition.
But Khaled took control of the area after the Awami League formed government. His influence began to spread to the nearby areas, including Kamalapur, Basabo and Khilgaon.
On Khaled's arrest, a watchman at his residence told bdnews24.com, "Sir came home around 9:30 am today. Later at around 2 pm, a team of RAB personnel entered the building while others surrounded it.”