Police have arrested three political leaders, including local leaders of BNP and its student wing, Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal, in connection with the robbery of gold jewellery from an expatriate’s brother near Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA).
The arrestees have been identified as Abdur Rauf, president of the airport unit of BNP; Ripon, president of the Airport Thana unit of Chhatra Dal; and Al-Amin Shanto, general secretary of the same Chhatra Dal unit. Another suspect remains at large as police operations continue to apprehend him.
The suspects were arrested during operations conducted by a police team on Saturday night and Sunday evening. Mirza Tareq Beg, deputy commissioner (DC) of the Uttara Division of police, confirmed the arrests.
He stated that the three suspects were arrested under a case filed by the brother of an expatriate. “Our operations are ongoing to arrest the others involved in the incident,” the DC added.
According to case documents, the victim, Md Suman, filed the case on 29 August. The case, registered as Airport Thana case no 46, names Abdur Rauf as the primary accused (accused no 1), Ripon as accused no 2, and Al-Amin Shanto as accused no 3.
Rubel, the General Secretary of the Airport Organisational Ward of the BNP, has been named as accused no. 4 and is currently fleeing.
In the case statement, Suman stated that his elder brother, Kawsar, an expatriate in Malaysia, had sent 200 grams of gold jewellery from Malaysia on 28 August for their sister’s wedding and family use.
On that night at around 8pm, Suman and his friend, Rohan Chowdhury, collected the jewellery at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from a contact of Suman’s brother. Suman kept 100 grams of the jewellery, while Rohan kept the remaining 100 grams, and the two boarded a rented HiAce microbus.
At approximately 8:05pm, on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway opposite Balaka Bhaban under Airport Police Station, the accused intercepted them.
The attackers falsely claimed, “We belong to the Awami League and Chhatra League, and we have bombs,” before launching a physical assault on Suman and Rohan, hitting them with random punches and blows. The assailants then snatched the 200 grams of gold jewellery.
Locals eventually rescued the two victims. During the incident, a pedestrian attempted to save them, while another pedestrian recorded a video of the scene on a mobile phone camera. As more people gathered, the attackers fled the spot with the stolen jewellery.
Attempts were made to contact Chhatra Dal President Rakib for his comment on the allegations, but he did not answer the phone.
