Former Awami League MP HBM Iqbal threatens to kill Premier Bank chairman, MD

Former Awami League lawmaker HBM Iqbal has reportedly issued death threats to the current chairman and managing director of Premier Bank. He also threatened to cut off the water and electricity connections to the bank’s head office in Dhaka.

Both the head office and the Banani branch of Premier Bank are located at Iqbal Centre, owned by HBM Iqbal. Following the threats, the bank authorities filed a general diary with Banani police station.

Meanwhile, the bank has begun preparations to vacate Iqbal Centre. It has already invited expressions of interest for a new location and officials are looking for suitable space in Gulshan and Banani for the head office.

In this context, Banani’s Iqbal Centre has once again come under discussion. Earlier, several media outlets, including Prothom Alo, had reported incidents of bank officials being confined in the building at different times.

Awami League’s former lawmaker HBM Iqbal had been the chairman of Premier Bank since its establishment in 1999. He left the bank following the fall of the Awami League government in August last year. Later in the same month, Bangladesh Bank formed a new board for the bank.

Since then, various irregularities, including Iqbal’s anonymous loans, purchases, and rental dealings, have come to light.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Premier Bank chairman Arifur Rahman, “I have returned to the bank after a long time. I have been finding various problems since returning. I am facing various obstacles. I have been threatened too. Despite all this, I am still continuing. To curb the expenses, various branches of our bank including the head office will be relocated.”

Premier Bank additional managing director (AMD) Shahed Sekandar filed a general diary (GD) with the Banani police station on behalf of the bank on 14 September.

He alleged that former chairman HBM Iqbal made a phone call on 12 September at 10:08 am, speaking for 31 minutes, and later the same day at 10:47 pm, speaking for another two minutes. During these calls, he threatened that the rent for Iqbal Centre and the Gulshan branch at the Gulshan Renaissance Hotel must be paid by 5:00 pm on 14 September.

He warned that otherwise the bank’s chairman Arifur Rahman and MD Mohammad Abu Zafar would face problems, and that MD Mohammad Abu Zafar’s house would be made to “vanish”.

He also warned the bank’s water and electricity connections would be cut off and told staff to come to the office at their own risk, noting that any incident could occur at any time.

In the GD, Shahed Sekandar also mentioned that on 13 September at 3:47 pm, HBM Iqbal called him again. At that time, he threatened the current chairman and MD with death if the rent was not paid by 15 September and warned him to be prepared for any kind of violent incident.

Bank officials have stated that during HBM Iqbal’s tenure as chairman, he withdrew nearly Tk 2 billion as advance rent, leaving no scope for him to pay rent monthly. In addition, he charged double the market rate for the building’s rent. For this reason, Premier Bank has begun the process of reclaiming all his properties.

When HBM Iqbal was called for a comment on this matter, he did not respond.

Located on Kamal Ataturk Avenue in Banani and established in the 1990s, Iqbal Centre has been the head office of Premier Bank from the start. Of the building’s 22 floors, Premier Bank rents 19.

One of the remaining floors houses HBM Iqbal’s Bukhara restaurant, and another his Premier Group. The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) has conducted several drives because the 22-storey building was constructed with permission for only 18 floors. In addition, the building has drawn attention at various times for reportedly detaining bank officials inside.

In 2013, Prothom Alo published a report on a similar incident. It states that after detaining an official for four days, Premier Bank authorities handed him over to the police. The official has alleged that he was tortured while being held at the bank’s head office in Banani.

The bank official is Shahinur Rahman. He was the manager of Premier Bank’s Motijheel Corporate Branch, which is owned by former Awami League MP HBM Iqbal.

The bank’s board of directors had temporarily suspended him along with four other officials. He had been missing since the incident.

The report also states that the day after their suspension, on Thursday, the officials were summoned to Iqbal Centre’s head office. They were then held on the ninth floor of the 19-storey building. Six guards kept watch over them at all times.

They were occasionally allowed to use mobile phones to contact their families, but were threatened with being thrown off the roof if they spoke anything unusual or informed anyone about the incident. In addition to Shahinur, two other Premier Bank officials were also held there.