After four militants surrendered to Rapid Action Battalion 4 (RAB 4) in Chakalgram of Savar upazila in Dhaka on Saturday, locals have said that losing tenants was just reward for land owner Ibrahim’s greed in evicting the previous residents.
Raju Ahmed, who runs a cable connection business in the Noarhat area of the upazila, said: “The tin-shed, warehouse-like residence owned by Ibrahim used to be rented to an honest family who earned their living through knitting. However, Ibrahim evicted them in favour of the militants, who were in disguise as RMG workers, as the latter offered more money about two months ago.”
Raju added that he felt lucky to have avoided militants himself, as they had previously tried to rent a flat in his building.
Also Read- RAB sweeps militants with zero casualties in Savar
“Fortunately, my landlord could not rent to them as there were no vacant flats. We could have been in big trouble,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Tribune could not reach Ibrahim for comment, as he was in RAB 4 custody at the time of filing this report.
RAB 4 Commanding Officer Additional Deputy Inspector General Lutful Kabir said that he could as yet not confirm this information on the landlord’s dealings with the militants.
“We have only just recovered the residence. Now, we will interrogate the land-lord and the militants. Later, we can make sure about their intentions as well as that of Ibrahim,” the RAB 4 CO said.
However, according to RAB sources, Ibrahim had informed them about the suspicious behaviour of the new tenants last month.