Published : 04 Oct 2026, 01:39 AM
Updated : 04 Oct 2026, 01:47 AM
Joint raids by four intelligence agencies have turned up 230 bottles of “illegal” liquor of different brands at Fu-Wang Bowling and Services, owned by Sheikh Nur Islam, father-in-law of content creator Salman Muqtadir.
Razvee Ahmed, additional director general of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID), said the agencies of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) seized the “unapproved” liquor on Saturday.
At a press conference at the NBR, Razvee said a team raided Fu-Wang in Gulshan as the bottles were being taken out of the restaurant in a small covered van. The vehicle was detained along with the stock.
The NBR's Income Tax Intelligence and Investigation unit, Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) and the VAT Audit, Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (VAT Intelligence) took part, with support from SRV and the Ansar.
Besides Fu-Wang, they raided Raw Canvas Restaurant, Holiday Inn operating in the name of Habib Hotel International, and Margherita Lounge.
The drive is part of the NBR's campaign against revenue evasion and illegal stockpiling.
“Our Team 1 raided Fu-Wang Bowling and Services in Gulshan,” Razvee said. “We found 230 bottles of various brands of liquor, and they could not show any valid documents.”
They also seized packets of “ginseng” and 1kg of “saffron”, and Fu-Wang could not show valid import or purchase papers for these either, he added.
Asked about the raid on a bar owned by Muqtadir's father-in-law, the CIID officer said the agencies act on reports held in their records and on information from reliable sources, and raid places that may hold smuggled, duty-evaded goods.
“No individual, group or content creator is the main factor here, and I can confirm that without hesitation,” he added.
“A coin has two sides. If it seems so to you, it may be a coincidence, one side of the coin. The other side is that someone may be trying to make it look like a coincidence. There is nothing beyond this.”
Officials said they had collected information on the venue's imports, purchases, sales and stock.
Other Three Bars
At Margherita Lounge in Uttara, officials found 608 litres of liquor, Razvee said.
“It has no valid approval,” he said, adding that only 36 litres was locally produced, from Carew & Co and similar makers.
“Even for those 36 litres, they could not show proper purchase documents, or what they showed raises considerable doubt. All the foreign liquor was unapproved, and we seized all of it.”
Another team raided the Holiday Inn International hotel in Tejgaon, run under the management of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). The bar at the hotel is not licensed in the hotel's name, the officer said.
The licence is in the name of an entity called Habib Hotel.
“A company can have different brand and trade names,” he said. “But as far as we know, approval from the Department of Narcotics Control is required here, and they could not show us any such approval.”
At Raw Canvas Bar and Restaurant in Gulshan, officials seized 29 litres of “unapproved” liquor.
Late on Thursday, CIID, the Department of Narcotics Control and SRB had jointly raided Toss Bond Private Limited, a bonded warehouse in South Gulshan.
The warehouse is accused of stocking duty-free liquor imported under bond facilities in two “unauthorised” godowns.
Those two and two valid godowns were sealed.
NBR officials call Nur Islam the owner of the warehouse. Fu-Wang claims neither he nor his family has any link to it.
The tax intelligence agencies had been investigating alleged irregularities in the liquor and bar business, as well as signs that Nur and his family hold Canadian citizenship and assets there.
The probe picked up pace after Salman blamed those in power for an attack on his studio at the New Gini Properties project in Dhaka.
