Casino crackdown remains unclear
Eleven days have passed since the crackdown on casinos in the country on 18 September, but the entire matter remains unclear. No one seems to have an idea of the specific target of the crackdown and where it is headed.
During a meeting held on 7 September, prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina called for the party to undergo a cleansing drive. A week later she issued directives for the removal of the president and general secretary of Chhatra League from their positions in the student wing. She also criticised two leaders of Dhaka South Jubo League. Five days later, the organising secretary of the South Jubo League, Khaled Mahmud Bhuiyan, was arrested.
The prime minister said, "I'll come down hard on Jubo League after Chhatra League. I'll catch each and every one. I'll eradicate all the discrepancies in society."
Speculations abound about these sudden drives, but everything remains unclear. Questions have arisen as to whether the drive will remain restricted to shutting down casinos or whether it will address corruption in politics as well.
The concerns have arisen as no notable persons except Khaled Mahmud Bhuiyan, Jubo League leader GK Shamim, Krishak League leader Shafiqul Alam and Mohammedan Club director-in-charge Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan were detained the in drives conducted around the country. There have been speculations about Dhaka South Jubo League president Ismail Hossain Chowdhury alias Samrat, but he remains at at large.
According to several Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officials, the matter will become clear once the prime minister returns from attending the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The drives will continue in the meantime, the officials said, adding that the law enforcement arresting certain persons as it may expose other names of the ruling party.
Questions have also arisen regarding the pauses in the drives as it seems as if the criminals are buying time. Two brothers, Enamul and Rupan, fled before their Sutrapur residence was raised. Huge amounts of cash and jewellery were recovered from their house.
Former advisor of the caretaker government Sultana Kamal says the initiative was a commendable step, albeit delayed. Crime and corruption, land and river encroachment, rape and abduction are taking place unhindered and ruling party men are allegedly involved, she said adding, we hope they will be prosecuted.
The drives are focussed only in casinos, beauty parlours and gambling dens. It will have dire consequences if this opportunity is not used to crackdown on corruption as a whole, she observed.
Speculations
Though the ministers are speaking to the media about the drives, they are not very informed about the motives of the drives, according to several leaders of AL's affiliated bodies.
A section of the leaders think the drives were launched to warn a senior leader who controls Jubo League. According to another quarter, the move was initiated from a clash between a business group and controllers of Jubo League.
On the day that Jubo League leader Khaled Mahmud was detained, RAB conducted a drive at the Young Men's Club at Fakirarpul, Dhaka where a casino was unearthed.
Over the next few days, the media was replete with reports on the casino and clubs in Dhaka. According to the reports, each club earned around Tk 1.5 to Tk 2 million per night. This money was shared among several leaders of the Jubo League, Awami League and the police.
The police were aware of the casino businesses running in Dhaka since 2017. Equipment for the casinos were also imported through legal channels.
The reports said Dhaka South Jubo League president Ismail Hossain Samrat controlled the casinos in Dhaka. Among his associates, organising secretary Khaled Mahmud Bhuiyan, councilor and joint secretary Mominul Haque Sayeed, vice president Enamul Haque Arman, executive member Jakir Hossain, state minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak's ex personal secretary Mizanur Rahman and Dhaka North Chhatra League president SM Rabiul Islam Sohel were named. Also parliament member Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shawon, Swechchasebok League president Molla Md. Abu Kawser, Sutrapur Awami League leader Enamul Haque and Rupan Bhuiyan came into discussion.
The central bank froze the bank accounts of the bodyguards of the three detained leaders--Nurunnabi Chowdhury, Ismail Hossain and GK Shamim.
Samrat could not be reached for comment. One of his associates, Mominul Haque Sayeed, told Prothom Alo on Friday that they did not force anyone to gamble at the casinos. He thinks a top business group wants to remove these existing casinos and replace them. Their rival group is boosting the drives ahead of the Awami League council. He asked if the perpetrators of the share market scam, bank corruption and so on were immune to the drives. "Why is the focus only on the sporting clubs?" he asked, adding, "Millions of taka are spent on club membership. Who are these members and what do they do at the clubs?"
Were the drives necessary?
Like all previous drives, lack of coordination between RAB and the police came to the fore. The police are projecting the drive as a crackdown on gambling, drugs and anti-social activities.
The police can take action after a crime has been committed, assistant inspector general of police (media) Sohel Rana said, adding that there were scopes to take action against any police member on grounds of negligence.
Police conducted a drive at Bogura's historic 123-years-old Town Club on 21 September. General secretary of the club, Shameem Kamal, 60, says he is the youngest member of the club.
A number of 15 people between the ages of 60 to 75 were detained from there, on charges of running a 'mini casino'. Also, Tk 1,600 was seized. The court granted them bail the following day. According to the Bogura police super, Ali Ashraf Bhuiyan, there was nothing wrong in detaining them as they were gambling, no matter how small the stakes were.
Shameem Kamal, however, was visibly upset and moved to tears, saying that all those who were detained were retired persons and they never played with more than Tk 100. Their children would drop them off at the club in the evening and pick them up later. They were not involved in any crime, he said.
The police conducted a drive at Siddique Bazar on 26 September to raid a gambling den. They eventually recovered 50 yaba tablets from the spot.
Earlier, 16 women and two men were detained from three spa clubs at Gulshan. A case was filed against them under the human trafficking act. The police statement said that the women were forcefully used for sex in the name of spa. While asked whether the women were victims of situation or actually involved in the crime, the inspector of Gulshan police station (investigation) SM Kaiyum declined to comment saying the media section of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police could comment on the issue.
The police are failing to differentiate between large-scale and small-scale crimes, said Zia Rahman, criminologist at Dhaka University. These crimes happened in collaboration with a number of politicians, police and other quarters. Each of the parties concerned may be trying to save the other, he said. He said that some of the drives may simply be a cover to hide other crimes.