Kolkata: Missing since 13 May in Kolkata, Anwarul Azim Anar, Bangladesh’s Awami League MP from Jhenaidah-4 constituency, was allegedly strangulated by a butcher Jihad Hawladar, a dreaded ‘hitman’ Shimul Bhuiyan and three others at the behest of the MP’s close friend Akhtaruzzaman Shahin — a US citizen.
The West Bengal CID arrested 24-year-old Hawladar, a Bangladeshi national, from North 24 Parganas district Thursday. He was sent to 12 days’ police remand Friday by a city sessions court for the alleged murder, conspiracy, destroying evidence and misleading the probe with false evidence.
Across the border, Bangladesh Police have arrested three more suspects, including the dreaded ‘hitman’ Amanullah alias Shimul Bhuiyan.
Bangladesh Police sources told ThePrint that in the past three to four months, Indian authorities seized some consignments of illegal gold worth around Bangladeshi Taka 200 crore. “Azim Anar used to get a hefty commission from Akhtaruzzaman Shahin for the safe passage of gold. When Shahin’s consignments got seized at the Indian border, he suspected the MP’s involvement and gave a contract for his murder,” said a police source.
With the arrest of Hawladar, horrific details of the murder came to light, including the MP being killed by strangulation, his body being hacked into pieces, the bones and the flesh separated and packed in small plastic bags and then disposed of across Kolkata.
While Anar’s body is yet to be recovered, the joint efforts of West Bengal and Bangladesh Police are uncovering new information daily, causing uproar in Dhaka over a lawmaker’s brazen murder in a foreign country.
Amid the uproar, the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has put forward some tough questions for the Sheikh Hasina administration even as Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said at a press briefing on 22 May: “The information we have so far is that the people of our country are involved in the killing.”
Speaking to ThePrint, BNP leader Nipun Roychowdhury said it seems Khan is in a hurry to absolve India of any possible role in the murder even though it took place on Indian soil.
“It is an ongoing investigation. Every day new details of the case are emerging. Why is our home minister in such a hurry to say that only Bangladeshis are involved in the murder? Would this not fan the ‘Boycott India’ campaign, which is on in Bangladesh?” she asked.
The ‘Boycott India’ campaign began in Bangladesh soon after Sheikh Hasina returned to power for a historic fourth term in Bangladesh. Powered by some social media influencers, the campaign blamed India for meddling in Bangladesh’s internal affairs and bringing Hasina back to power. It called for boycott of all Indian products from Bangladesh markets.
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Murder most foul
According to media reports, the initial probe shows Anwarul Azim Anar’s close friend Akhtaruzzaman Shahin allegedly paid around Rs 5 crore to Jihad Hawladar and his four associates for the murder.
Dhaka journalist Zia Chowdhury, who is reporting on the MP’s murder for the local press, said it was difficult to verify every new detail that was emerging in the case. Citing his sources, Chowdhury said it appears that Hawladar came to Kolkata two months before Anar at Akhtaruzzaman Shahin’s behest. “The murder seemed to have been planned meticulously. The MP went to West Bengal on 12 May for medical treatment and first stayed at Baranagar and then at an apartment in the New Town area. He went missing on 13 May. The killers seemed to be aware of his movements,” Chowdhury told ThePrint.
He added that Dhaka Police officers are trying to piece together the case after the “hitman’s” arrest.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Police has also recovered CCTV footage that purportedly shows an apartment near Kolkata where the MP was last seen before his killing. There is also speculation of a woman used as a honeytrap being involved in the crime.
The ‘hitman’ with many names
According to Zia Chowdhury, Shimul Bhuiyan or the ‘hitman’ is a dreaded contract killer from Bangladesh’s Khulna region and has been involved in many murders.
“For over a decade, he was not spotted in public. He managed to evade the police. Police sources say Shimul played a key role in the MP’s murder, though after his arrest, he was identified as Amanullah. A fake passport was found with him with that name,” he said.
Shimul Bhuiyan is the fourth son of Nasir Uddin Bhuiyan from Bangladesh’s Damodar village, Fultala upazila, Khulna. He adopted various pseudonyms at different times to carry out his crimes, according to a report in Bangladeshi daily The Business Standard.
The report added that, previously, Shimul Bhuiyan was also known as Fazal Bhuiyan, Shihab, and Fazal Mohammad, according to police records. “However, after his arrest in connection with the murder of MP Azim, a new name, Syed Amanullah, was discovered,” said the report.
In 1990, Shimul Bhuiyan gained notoriety for his alleged role in the murder of Dumuria upazila chairman, Imran, in Khulna. Following his arrest, he served time from 1991 until 1997. A year after his release, he was implicated in another high-profile case — the murder of Sardar Abul Kashem from Damodar union, the report added.
Notably, it was Bhuyian’s alleged ultra-Left leanings and friendship with Abdur Rashid Malitha or Dada Tapan — a top leader of the Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML-Janajuddha) — that kickstarted his violent ways. “Shimul took leadership responsibilities for the ultra-Left party in the Khulna region and became notorious in the region,” Chowdhury told ThePrint.
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Political fallout and ‘India Out’
The 56-year-old Anwarul Azim Anar was allegedly involved in gold smuggling, hundi or illegal money transfer and other criminal activities.
The fact that Jihad Hawladar and other Bangladeshi nationals could enter India, possibly illegally, and carry out the murder of a sitting MP puts the spotlight on the issue of porous borders between India and Bangladesh and the smuggling rackets that allegedly thrive.
As a war of words over the MP’s killing between BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader make headlines in Dhaka, BNP leader Nipun Roychowdhury highlighted three pressing issues that have come to the fore — syndicate raj, illegal immigration and Hasina government shielding India at all costs.
“A sitting Awami League MP was running a gold smuggling racket. Various kinds of illegal syndicates have flourished under Sheikh Hasina’s leadership. The murder has exposed that. The fact that illegal immigration leading to such criminal activities is so rampant is shocking. But beyond these two points, the Hasina government seems to be trying to block any attempt at a possible Indian hand in the murder,” she told ThePrint.
According to her, such blind support to India will give credence to the ‘India Out’ campaign that is going on in Bangladesh that calls for a boycott of all Indian products in the Bangladeshi market. “And now a sitting MP has been killed in India. Let there be a proper probe before our government saying all killers are from Bangladesh,” she asserted.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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