MP Anwarul Azim murder: Jihad, Siam threw body parts outside

After chopping the body of Jhenaidah-4 constituency MP, Anwarul Azim at a flat in India’s Kolkata, some of the body parts were thrown outside while the remaining parts were flushed at two commodes.

“Butcher” Jihad Hawlader, arrested in Kolkata, and Md Siam Hossain from Bhola’s Borhanuddin, now hiding in Nepal, threw the body parts outside.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said this in a letter to National Central Bureau (NCB) at the police headquarters on 25 May.

It further said that the meaty parts were flushed at two commodes and the bones and the chopped head were given to JIhad and Siam in a luggage. They threw the parts at a nearby waste canal.

The investigation sources said the pieces of meat recovered from the flat’s septic tank may have been flushed in the commode. Attempts will be made to recover the pieces thrown out. After arresting Jihad, Kolkata police took him to various places in the last one week in search of the parts. However, no human remains could be recovered until now.

In this situation, the police force from both the countries think that the rest of the body can be recovered if Siam can be arrested. A mystery has been created about this Siam.

Md Siam Hossain is from Borhanuddin, Bhola. Everyone in the locality knows him as Sagar. Although their ancestral house is in Barisal, Siam’s father Md Alauddin Bali went to Borhanuddin around 40-42 years ago due to his job and settled there. They used to live in a rented house in ward No 8 of Borhanuddin pourashava. They shifted to another house in the locality four to five days ago.

Siam is known as a software engineer in the area. Colleagues and neighbours of Siam’s father said that they know that Siam works in a software company in Dhaka with good salary and often makes trips to India and Nepal due to his job. Siam bought a large amount of land in Barishal, Borhanuddin and Dhaka. In Borhanuddin, he put pressure on a relative of his childhood friend to buy a plot of land in the area. Recently he bought a piece of land in Barishal for Tk 2.2 million.

Wishing not to be named, one of Siam’s childhood friends told Prothom Alo, “Siam’s lifestyle has changed a lot in the last two to three years. He earned a lot of money during this time. He started touring India and Nepal very often. When we asked what he does in Dhaka, he used to give different answers each time. He told us that he had bought land for Tk 4 million a few days ago.”

The police have sent the recovered body parts for a DNA test. The MP’s daughter Mumtarin Ferdaus will go to India to help verify whether those are of slain MP Anwarul Azim.

Anwarul’s family sources said Mumtarin is likely to be accompanied by Anwarul’s personal assistant Abdur Rouf, his elder brother Ali Abed and nephew Saimon. The DMP’s DB police are also maintaining a communication with them in this regard.

Speaking about this, Abdur Rouf on Wednesday evening told Prothom Alo that Mumtarin and he have applied for Indian visas. The other two already have the visas.

Police forces of both Bangladesh and India are in darkness over the motive of the murder of MP Anwarul Azim. Speaking at a programme, DMP commissioner Habibur Rahman on Wednesday acknowledged this. He said it would be possible to know the motive once the mastermind is arrested.

The identified mastermind of this gruesome murder is Aktaruzzaman alias Shahin. Speaking about his deportation to Bangladesh, the DMP commissioner said, “The police would try its best to bring him (Aktaruzzaman) back to the country. Though we don’t have an extradition agreement with them (the US), the attempt will be made through diplomatic or other channels.”

Habibur Rahman also said the trial of this murder could be held in Bangladesh, or this could be in India since the incident took place on their soil. A decision will be made after discussion in this regard, he added.

*The report, originally published in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza