Underworld money and muscle, fights over establishing supremacy and abuse of power by political leaders have turned Narayanganj into a dysfunctional, crime and corruption-prone district.
Except for a few exceptions, corrupt government officials and law enforcers are to be equally blamed for the crumbling administration and law and order situation in the city, local residents have told this correspondent.
In Narayanganj, a busy business hub some 20km off Dhaka, has always been known as a crime-prone city. But the ragged situation came to the forefront after the recent abduction of environmentalist Rizwana Hassan’s husband and the sensational abduction and killing of seven.
In the wake of the abductions and the murders, three RAB officers lost jobs; the chiefs of Narayanganj district police and administration were withdrawn. The seven police stations in the district saw massive overnight reshuffles.
The name of Shamim Osman, a local ruling party lawmaker and sometimes called a “godfather,” has come up repeatedly in connection with the sensational seven murders. It is nothing new for him because every time a major crime takes place in the port city, his name would come up.
Most local residents, present and former officials of the district, who talked to this correspondent, wished not to be named out of fear of retaliation.
The Osman family, of which Shamim is a part, started flexing its political muscles in the late 1990s, when the Awami League was in power. Shamim Osman was an MP from 1996-2001. He fled Narayanganj after the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance came to power in 2001.
Shamim’s brother late Nasim Osman, who was a leader of Jatiya Party, had also been elected lawmaker several times.
Nur Hossain, the prime accused in the seven-murder cases who left BNP to join Awami League in 2000, followed Shamim’s suit.
Following the 2001-2006 tenure of BNP-Jamaat and the 2007-2008 tenure of the army-backed caretaker government, the Awami League returned to power in 2009. Shamim and Nur, along with many other Awami League leaders, also returned to Narayanganj.
Because Shamim was not an elected public representative anymore, establishing supremacy over the area and rebuilding his 1990s empire was never easy for him. In 2011, Shamim ran for the mayor of the then newly-formed Narayanganj City Corporation, but lost to Selina Hayat Ivy, another leader affiliated with the ruling party.
Finally this year, Shamim was elected lawmaker from the Narayanganj 4 constituency in the January 5 10th parliament election.
In the meantime, Nur Hossain, once the helper of a trucker, gradually climbed up the ladder of power and politics in the port city. He came to be known as Shamim’s right hand man and is said to have emerged as the new “godfather” of Narayanganj.
Over the years, Nur has established his own empire of drug trade, illegal sand-stone business, manipulated tenders for construction business, and an extortion racket.
In the process he developed his network and influence among the city’s local administration and the law enforcement units such as police and RAB.
Although he managed to “buy” a large section of the local government officials and law enforcers, getting a comprehensive grip remained impossible for him until 2011, when SP Biswas Afzalur Rahman was the district police chief. Afzal knew that he was a criminal and Nur knew that he would never gain access to the police chief.
However, after Afzal’s transfer from the port city, Nur developed a warm relationship with the new SP Sheikh Nazmul Alam. He used to pay frequent visits to not only the office of the new local police chief but also to his residence.
“That was the beginning of Nur’s nursing by a top official of the district,” said another police official who witnesses Nur’s rise to glory from close quarters.
He also established good relations with district Deputy Commissioner (DC) Monoj Kanti Boral and some officials of RAB 11, three of whose officers are blamed for the recent seven murders.
Things got even better for Nur after he was elected a ward councillor in the 2011 city elections. When he ran for the elections, he had several cases filed against him and the then Election Commission asked local police to take actions against him. But nothing was done against him and he came out winner in the polls.
Not only was his ward councillor status but also the fact that he was known as Shamim Osman’s man, gave him every immunity he needed to carry on with his illegal businesses.
Nazrul Islam, one of the seven victims of the recent sensational abduction and murder, was also a ward councillor elected in the 2011 city polls. Later he ran for panel mayor and won. Nur, however, failed to will the panel mayor election.
Nazrul was also known as Shamim’s man. But he fell from the lawmaker’s grace after he got close to Narayanganj Mayor Ivy after the elections. That inspired Nur to take on Nazrul repeatedly.
A local police official said despite having a reputation as a “criminal,” Nur managed to get a license for his firearm when Nazmul was the SP. The DC might be the license issuing authority, but the SP’s recommendation is a must for issuing licenses.
After Nazmul, Syed Nurul Islam became the Narayanganj SP in February 2013. In no time, Nur took him in his confidence as well. Nurul was among the government officials, who were withdrawn after the seven murders.
Allegedly, Nur had not only been paying huge bribes to the government officials and law enforcers, he also regularly paid similar sums to some local and central leaders of both ruling Awami League and BNP.
Police officials said Nur earned at least Tk20 lakh every day from drug trade, extortion, etc.
“In 2011, he used to come to the SP office in one car. Soon after, he started coming on luxury cars. Last year, he started roaming around in the city with a 10-car motorcade,” a police officer said.
According to police, the main source of Nur’s income was drug trade. He also made handsome amounts by illegally extracting sand from the Sitalakkhya River, taking ransom after abducting people, extortion, running prostitution in the city’s residential hotels, land grabbing, encroaching rivers, gambling, and so on.
A police official, who has extensive knowledge about the city’s crime network, said Nur had grown so powerful that even the other criminals in the city had to pay a part of their earning to him.
It is said that every vehicle crossing the Kanchpur Bridge must pay a certain amount to Nur’s men. Truckers, bus drivers and even the water vehicles in the Sitalakkhya River are also his prey.
Many local residents said although he worked under the wings of Shamim Osman, his ultimate goal was to become a “godfather” or a “mafia don” himself.
There is only a handful law enforcers in the city who did not give into Nur’s lures. But they were not powerful enough to move against him even if they wanted to.
Rafiur Rabbi, father of college student Tanvir Mohammad Twoki, who was abducted and killed in Naryanganj last year, said: “Political families like that of the Osmans always want police, district administration and RAB under their control.”
After police failed to unearth Twoki’s murder mystery, the case was transferred to RAB, who said after investigation that the Osman family was behind the murder.
Shortly, RAB 11’s then then chief Lt Col Jahangir was replaced with Lt Col Tarek Sayeed Mohammad.
At that time, Shamim Osman tried to publicise that he orchestrated the removal of Jahangir and brought in Tarek.
Tarek is one of the army officers who were removed from service after the seven murders.
A former government official from the city said: “The culture of giving political shelter to criminals by leaders and the practice of making the administration, police and RAB partners in crime ruined the normal functioning of the local administration.”
Another former official, who served for Naraynaganj, said: “For making the city safe for common people, neither do we need huge manpower in administration, police and RAB nor modern equipment and highly trained people. All we need is good intention and the will to work with honesty... Unfortunately, that is what the Narayanganj administration badly lacks.”
Nur, who is the prime accused in the seven murder cases, is now a fugitive. Police said they had been looking for him.
But there are allegations that law enforcers did not move swiftly to get hold of him. Local residents said they had seen Nur roaming around in the city freely even after the abductions took place and cases were filed against him.
Months before the seven murders, the Police Service Association published a memorabilia on the occasion of the Police Week 2014. It had messages from the president, prime minister and police high officials. Withdrawn SP Nurul was the editor of that publication. Nur gave a full page advertisement, with his own photograph, in that memorabilia and wished police all the success.
When asked, SP Nurul told this correspondent that he “had no idea about Nur’s underworld and criminal activities.”
