It was around 12:20 am on November 2, 2016, when five bike-borne men, armed with shotguns, rifles, bombs and pistols surrounded four other bikers right next to a madrassa.
The five brandished the weapons, threatened the other four men, including Jhenaidah-4 (Kaliganj) MP Anwarul Azim Anar, before riding away into the pitch-black darkness.
That was the fist occasion when Anar, who was elected an Awami League MP for the first from Kaliganj in 2014, had come face to face with death.
A complaint filed by Anar’s personal assistant at Kaliganj police station listed the MP’s party colleagues as Mohammad Shibly Nomani, Mohammad Zakir Hossain, Eskander Ali, Ashiquzzaman Sohag and Raju.
The complainants knew the other men who they identified as Mohammad Abu Sayid, Mohammad Kausar Ali, Mohammad Azizul Haque, Milan and Masum.
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“They were all henchmen of local Awami League leader and former Union Council Chairman Azizur Rahman Khan,” a source close to Anar, who is suspected to have been killed on in a New Town apartment in Kolkata on May 13,” told Northeast News.
It was alleged that Kausar Ali fired at Anar’s PA (Abdur Rouf) but the bullet missed hitting his head. When Anar and his party colleagues raised an alarm, Abu Sayid is said to have hurled two bombs which exploded nearby.
He ran to escape but in the process fell and was overpowered by Anar’s men. Later, Kausar Ali is said to have admitted that he had paid Taka 15 lakh to have Anar eliminated.
Acting on Rouf’s complaint, the Jhenaidah police arrested Azizur Rahman Khan November 20, 2016, and charged him with conspiracy to murder the Kaliganj MP.
Inquiries by Northeast News revealed that at that time Azizur Rahman Khan was a close follower of an influential central Awami League leader who would be elected MP from a nearby district in 2018.
This Awami League leader was not considered for a party nomination for the so-called January 7, 2024, parliamentary election that returned Sheikh Hasina to power for the fourth consecutive time.
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Since that incident, Anar has had several other brushes with death and near-escapes. And on each occasion, rivals within the Awami League were suspected to have been involved.
Curiously, the police never took steps to proceed against other party leaders who might have been involved in causing Anar bodily harm.
Even as Rouf’s complaint provided details related to the accused men, there was – curiously again – no hint of why the attack against the then sitting MP took place that mild wintry night.
Political rivalry could be one reason, but was there some other variable at play? Could it be that illicit activities on the India-Bangladesh border – Kaliganj is merely 35-40 kms from the international boundary – were at the centre of the conspiracy to eliminate Anar in November 2016?
Inquiries by Northeast News, with the Bangladesh police as well as Awami League sources did not turn up any meaningful information.
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The five persons accused in the November 2016 murder attempt on Anar were subsequently produced before a designated magistrate who recorded their statements under Section 164 of the Bangladesh Criminal Procedure Code.
The accused persons admitted to taking on the “job” to eliminate Anar but they did not reveal the real conspirators who wanted the Kaliganj MP dead.
Copies of the statements made by the persons under Section 164 of the BCrPC is in the possession of Northeast News.
One of the accused persons, deposing before Magistrate Qazi Akhtaruzzaman on November 22, 2016, admitted that he was part of the conspiracy to murder Anar.
In his two-page deposition, he provided details of how the conspiracy was hatched and for what price – he was individually paid Taka 50,000 – and how it was to be executed.
