Bangladesh News

Top criminal Sanjidul Islam Emon said that it was former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leader Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, who had introduced him to the underworld of Dhaka.

Meanwhile, Ishaq Ali, who along with Emon was deported from India on Friday, told the law enforcers that he was a close associate of dreaded criminal Dakat Shahid.

A Dhaka court yesterday placed the two on eight-day remand each for interrogation after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) produced them before it.

During primary questioning earlier in the morning, Emon told the CID officials that he became involved with Pintu, an infamous JCD cadre back then, while he was a student at the sociology department of Dhaka University (DU) in the mid ’90s.

Pintu, who later on became a BNP lawmaker, used to lead the armed clashes with rival student organisations at the DU.

He said that he was attached to Surya Sen Hall, a stronghold of Pintu faction of the JCD. “I joined the faction, started carrying out Pintu bhai’s orders and at one point, I became involved in criminal activities,” a CID official quoted Emon as saying.

Later on, he joined hands with notorious criminal brothers Joseph and Harris Ahmed of Mohammadpur area, but formed a separate group afterwards following a feud with the two over killing of JCD leader Morshed in the Dhaka court area, Emon said.

Due to the split, Joseph and Harris attempted to kill him thrice and as retribution, he shot dead Titu, another brother of the two criminals in the late ’90s in the city, CID interrogators said quoting Emon. It was his first killing, Emon said.

Emon claimed to the CID officials that he does not maintain any group at present.

Some of his accomplices had been killed in ‘encounter’ with the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) while many others had joined other crime groups, he said.

He also said that he was trying to flee to the USA, but before that, he was caught in India.

The CID said that Emon has nine murder cases against him, of which, five are under trial at present.

Meanwhile, CID sources said Ishaq was a jeweller and was involved in smuggling of gold bars from Singapore. In 2002, he was caught with 300 gold bars in old Dhaka.

After he got released on bail, he joined the infamous inter-district robber and a notorious criminal of the old part of the city Dakat Shahid.

Due to Rab actions, he left the country for India where he used to work as Shahid’s bodyguard.

Ishaq said that he was trying to flee to Italy in the wake of Indian police’s crackdown on fugitive Bangladeshi criminals. He had given Rs 6 lakh to a manpower agent for arranging his visa to Italy, he further said.

In the afternoon, Inspector Shyamol Chowdhury of the CID produced the two before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Shamsunnahar under tight security.

The criminals were in bullet-proof vests at the time.

In the forwarding report, Inspector Shyamol said that Emon and Ishaq fled to India a few years back. They have been carrying out various criminal and anti-state activities in collaboration with other criminals using pseudonyms.

Their involvement in different crimes in and outside the capital before their flight to India are quite evident, he said.

Inspector Shyamol further said that the two need to be remanded for 10 days to find out about the criminal activities they carried out while in hiding and to collect addresses of those who assisted them so that they can be captured.

After the hearing, the magistrate granted eight days remand each for interrogation.