Adviser Asif Mahmud goes to Neela Market for duck, finding it closed, he goes to The Westin

The Advisor for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, has said that sometimes his work finishes so late at night that it is already dawn. At such times, as there is no one at home to prepare food, he mostly goes to Neela Market on 300 Feet Road to eat duck meat. If it gets too late and Neela Market closes, then he goes to The Westin Hotel in Gulshan.

He made these remarks at the Secretariat on Thursday afternoon while replying to queries from journalists about his name being mentioned in a video message by expelled Bangladesh Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad leader Jane Alam Opu, who was arrested in connection with an extortion incident at a former MP’s house in Gulshan.

In the video, Jane Alam said that he had met Adviser Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan somewhere in Gulshan on the day they took extortion money from the former MP’s house. Replying to a query on this matter, the adviser said he could not recall whether he had gone to that area on that day.

When asked if the helmeted person seen in CCTV footage of the extortion incident was indeed him, the adviser replied, “If anyone in a CCTV video wearing a helmet is claimed to be me, how believable is that, really?”

Denying any involvement in the extortion incident, Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan said, “I do not think anyone has yet been able to present any proof that I was involved."

"On the contrary, in another interview that was taken, there is an allegation that a person was forcibly taken to a political leader’s house—this is a very serious allegation. And it came from the family’s side. So far, it seems quite reliable. Therefore, the claim that I am connected to this matter is entirely politically motivated,” he added.