Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury's village Borogram is located by the Indo-Bangla border, approximately 44km from Sylhet. The border lies in the east of the village, about 300 yards from Tamim’s house.
The residents of the area could not give any information regarding him. Even the houses of his three uncles were found locked. During a conversation, Tamim's one uncle and neighbour Humayun Kabir said, Safiqur Islam Chowdhury nicknamed “Showa Mia” was a British diesel engineer. He used to work at the Chittagong shipyard. He went to Canada around the time when the Liberation War was going on.
Humayun didn't have any connection with his cousin after Showa Mia went to Canada, said Humayun Kabir, adding that Showa Mia married his wife in Canada. Showa Mia never brought his wife to the village. Humayun also said the 'highly educated' Showa Mia was always a little stubborn. He was never very outgoing. He lost contact with his relatives after getting married, let alone the villagers. Humayun Kabir went to Doha, Qatar in 1978 and stayed there for 7 years. Then he went to Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, he never met Showa Mia.
Dhaka Tribune/Mohammad RazonAs far as he knew, Showa Mia had a son and a daughter. Showa Mia married off his daughter with Jamil, son of his older brother Fakrul Islam Chowdhury. Jamil lives with his wife and family in Canada. However, Humayun said Jamil and Showa Mia lived with their own families separately. Humayun felt reluctant to give any Canadian contact number.
Quoting Tamim's aunt, Humayun said, Tamim's father had little contact with his family in the village and after his son disappeared he cut off contact completely. Showa Mia and his wife are living in Canada on his pension money. Showa Mia's daughter and her husband live separately. Humayun had never even seen Tamim. Many intelligence agency members had visited Humayun's house after Tamim's terror connection was exposed in the media. He couldn't give any information as to why Tamim got involved with terrorism.
Showa Mia had eight siblings –four sisters and four brothers. His older brother Fakrul Islam Chowdhury had passed away 4/5 years ago. Showa Mia was the second oldest child. One of Tamim's other paternal uncles, Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, has passed away last Sunday and the other, Narul Islam, is involved with import business in Jaflong.
Asked about Tamim's locked house in the village, Humayun said Tamim's uncle Nazrul Islam has passed away after being bedridden for the last few months. Nurul Islam lives away from home because of his work. Thus his house is locked at the moment. He denied the possibility of the house being locked for any other reason.
Tamim's residence in the village consists of two tin-shed houses. There is a house in the east which is probably used for housekeeping. There is an empty plot right beside this house. According to a local journalist, this plot also belongs to Tamim's family. But, when asked about this, Humayun said this plot hasn't yet been distributed among the family members. There is also a huge pond.
Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury's ancestral place in Sylhet's Beanibazar
Mohammed Serajul IslamOne can reach this place from Sylhet by road. However, to go to Tamim's house, one has to walk for half a kilometer. When asked about Tamim, Kaushik Ranjan Das, a resident of the same village, said, “Brother, we go to the fields right after waking up in the morning. I don't have time to keep track of terrorists. But there had been a lot of talks about Tamim. People had been talking a lot about this and wondering how such a big terrorist could hail from this village.” Forest and Environment Affairs Secretary of Awami League's Dubag Union, Zakaria Ahmed said, “We hate Tamim's activities. I am demanding Tamim's quick arrest to the concerned.” Tamim's youngest paternal uncle is the Joint Secretary of Awami League's Amran Ward.
Dubag Union's twice-elected Chairman Abdus Salam said, “Tamim doesn't live in Beanibazar. If he comes to this area, we will hand him over to police.”
Law enforcers have frequently been contacting them regarding Tamim, said Abdus Salam, adding that a member from Tamim's family was not supposed to turn out this way. But he could not understand how this happened.
Beanibazar Officer-in-Charge of police Chandan Chakrabarty told Bangla Tribune, “The police have been seriously working on Tamim's case. But he doesn't frequent Sylhet nor Beanibazar. His uncles told me that they have not seen him as well. Even then, our intelligence activities regarding this subject have been on.”
Sylhet's Additional Superintendent of Police and Media Officer, Shugyan Chakma said, “Police Departments of the entire country have been kept on alert for Tamim's arrest. Sylhet is also part of it. The Sylhet Police have been very serious regarding this subject.” He opined that a lot of things cannot be discussed for the sake of investigation.
Tamim's paternal cousin, Fahim Ahmed Chowdhury told Bangla Tribune, “Tamim bhai was a lot older than me. I met him only once when he came to the village in may be in 1995. But I was very young. Tamim Bhai was then around 14 or 15. We didn't have any contact with them ever since.”
Another cousin of Tamim's, Tazin Ahmed Chowdhury, told the Beanibazar journalists, “Even if Tamim's family came to Bangladesh in 2001, they did not visit the village. They stayed in a rented apartment for three months in the city [Sylhet] and then left for Canada.”
Tamim's relatives said, Tamim was married and had three children. He has only one sister. His maternal grandfather is from Ghilachhora, Fenchuganj. It wasn't known for exactly how long Tamim had been missing. But RAB disclosed two of Tamim's passport no. which are AAF-2837076 which was issued in 04/08/2013 and valid till 03/08/2016; and AL-0633478. RAB also revealed his birth certificate no. which is 19860091241001342.
