The so-called ‘butcher’ who took part in the alleged murder of Bangladesh Awami League MP Anwarul Azim Anar in a Kolkata apartment on May 13 actually lived in that very city and not in Thane as the West Bengal CID has made out to be.
Bangladesh Police sources in Khulna confirmed to Northeast News over phone that Howladar had been living in hiding in Kolkata since March 2023.
Besides Howladar, the main hitman “hired” to kill Anar, Shimul Bhuiyan, alias Amanullah, was also a frequent visitor to Kolkata where he had extensive contacts with some elements of the local population as well as Bangladeshis wanted by the police in that country. In the past, Bhuiyan travelled with multiple identity documents.
Jihad Howladar, the 24-year-old so-called ‘butcher’, was arrested on May 24, two days after the West Bengal CID announced that Anar had been murdered at a triplex apartment at Sanjeev Gardens society in Kolkata’s New Town area.
He chose to remain in Kolkata after allegedly committing the crime and made no attempt to flee to Thane. In its remand application before a Barasat court, the West Bengal CID simply mentioned ‘Thane’ as Howladar’s residence without providing any details about the location of his house in that city.
The West Bengal CID also said that Howladar was a butcher although Northeast News as well as other Bangladeshi media have reported that he earned his living – in his native Barakpur village under Dighalia Upazila of Khulna district in Bangladesh – as a painter and white-washer.
Inquiries and investigations by Northeast News suggest that Howladar fled Barakpur after allegedly murdering a local Awami League leader about a year-and-a-half ago. He crossed the India-Bangladesh border illegally and like scores of other such Bangladeshi criminals took shelter in Kolkata.
Northeast News posed the following questions to West Bengal Additional DG and CID chief R Rajasekharan:
1) Jihad Howladar, who is an accused in the alleged murder of Bangladesh Awami League MP Anwarul Azim Anar, was arrested by the West Bengal CID from Kolkata. However, the CID said that he lived as an illegal immigrant in Thane. Please state the full address in Thane (where) he lived. Please also state which butcher shop in Thane or Mumbai did he work. What is the name of the owner of the butcher shop.
2) Did Jihad Howladar in reality live illegally in Kolkata? Does this mean that the CID fabricated and stated falsely in court that he lived in Thane?
3) What is the number of estimated Bangladeshi criminals who live illegally in Kolkata and its nearby areas? Why has the West Bengal CID or police not take any action against these Bangladeshi nationals who committed crimes in their own country and then crossed the India-Bangladesh border illegally to live in Kolkata and some of its nearby areas?
4) Would you describe the West Bengal CID’s inaction to arrest these Bangladeshi criminals as deliberate and willful?
5) Jihad Howladar escaped to Kolkata a year-and-a-half ago after allegedly committing a murder there. Are you aware of this crime?
Rajasekharan did not respond to the questions. However, Northeast News’ inquiries in Bangladesh and Kolkata revealed that over a hundred Bangladeshi criminals live illegally in West Bengal. After crossing the border, many of these Bangladeshi nationals travel to adjoining Odisha where they ‘procure’ Indian identity documents, including Aadhar and PAN cards. Many of these Bangladeshi nationals are originally from Khulna, Jhenaidah and Jessore.
They then move to Kolkata where, by virtue of language and other ethnic similarities, they live undisturbed. The police is aware of the presence of such a large number of criminals from Bangladesh but does not take any action against them. Their preferred place of residence in Kolkata is Park Circus or in the narrow lanes and bylanes of central Kolkata, including Marquis Street.
Jihad Howladar, Bangladeshi police records show, allegedly shot dead Ansar Ali, a local Awami League leader near Linda Clinic in Shiromani area of Khulna on March 24, 2023. Three persons were involved in the alleged murder. Local media, quoting the investigating officer of the case, Palash Kumar Das, identified the three as Jihad, Rafiq and Billal.
Police investigations in Khulna found Jihad Howladar to be a close aid of Awami League’s Barakpur Union Chairman Zakir Hossain who was allegedly murdered by his political rivals in March last year. Ansar was said to be the prime suspect in Hossain’s killing.
Shimul Bhuiyan, one of the key figures in Anar’s alleged ‘murder’, was previously known as Fazal Bhuiyan, Shihab and Fazal Mohammad. Originally a resident of Damodar village under Phultala Upazila, Shimul Bhuiyan was a notorious ultra-leftist cadre before he took to crime, slipping back into India and Bangladesh from time to time to escape the law.
Bhuiyan is named in several murder cases in the Khulna-Jhenaidah-Jessore belt and was close to some senior central Awami League leaders. While his younger brother Shiplu Bhuiyan is an active Awami Leaguer in Khulna, Shimul Bhuiyan’s wife Sabina Yasmin Mukta is a Khulna city councilor.
Shiplu Bhuiyan officially joined the Awami League in 2016 when he formally inducted into the party in the presence of then Fisheries and Livestock cabinet minister Narayan Chandra Chanda and Fultala Awami League President and Upazila Chairman Sheikh Akram Hossain.
