The man who is suspected to have led Wednesday’s attack on Kazi Farms subsidiary in Chittagong is known in his locality as a fraud who was once a professional timber thief.
Nasir Member lived in a thatched house at Chandanaish upazila’s Dohazari. But he turned the wheel of fortune almost overnight – today he owns millions of Taka, a four-storied market and a vast swathe of land, locals claim.
A local, who declined to be named fearing retribution, said Nasir’s fate started to change in 1989 when Sanwara Group first moved in the area to buy land.
“He earned huge amount of money as commission from Sanwara Group, owned by Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSc, by becoming a land broker. Nasir won the election hands down to become a union parishad member,” the man said, adding that his unpopular activities had cost him the last election.
Another resident claimed Nasir had married a Rohingya woman and rehabilitated a number of Rohingyas, who had been working as his vote bank and henchmen. Dhaka Tribune could not verify the claim independently.
“Nasir cajoled the mostly illiterate locals to give him power of attorney for selling their land, promising them large sums of money from big companies who were looking for land there. This is how he betrayed people in the area,” he said.
Nasir rejected the allegations vehemently, saying he had been making an honest living through small business. He dubbed locals’ claims a “smear campaign” to defame him as he was “popular political figure in the locality”.
Asked how he came to own the market, he said it was a small market and that he had worked as a middle-man to broker land deals to earn money for constructing the market. “The income is all legal,” he asserted.
Several hundred people took part in last week’s attack on Dohazari Kazi Poultry Limited owned by Kazi Farms, one of Bangladesh’s biggest business organisations, which left seven people including General Manger maj (retd) Sheikh Masumul Hasan injured.
Masumul claimed Nasir had led the attack instigated by Sanwara Poultry and Hatchery Limited’s Managing Director Mujibur Rahman, son of Minister Nurul Islam. Mujibur could not be reached for comments.
On September 17, May 21 and May 24 last year, the same people attacked and vandalised the farm, injuring several staff, farm officials claimed. Kazi Farms filed a general diary over the May 24 incident with Chandanaish police.
According to it, Kazi Poultry Limited had purchased 113 acres of land from Sanwara Poultry and Hatchery Limited – owned by Minister Nurul – two years ago. Kazi poultry’s Masumul said Sanwara poultry owned 320 acres in the area but most of it had issues with documents.
“Our company bought land that had proper documents. Local brokers and ruling party men instructed by Mujibur have been trying to force us to buy the rest of the land. So, they started attacking us and grab parts of our land,” he alleged.
Police role questioned
Police are yet to make a move over last week’s attack. Masumul said a police team had visited the spot after they informed the law enforcers about the incident.
“Although the officer-in-charge promised to take necessary steps, all the culprits are roaming wild and threatening our employees,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said police had lodged a GD instead of registering a regular case on a previous occasion and did not take any steps against anyone named in the complaint.
Chandnaish police OC Gazi Mohammed Shakhawat Hossain said they were prepared to avert any untoward incident and added that they could not arrest anyone without cognisable offence. “Kazi Farms has not filed any case against anyone over Wednesday’s incident,” he added.
