Two rounds fired at an expatriate businessman’s house in Hamzarbagh, in Chattogram city’s Panchlaish, have spread alarm in the area. Hours earlier, a Tk50 lakh (5 million) extortion demand had been made to the businessman’s son from a foreign WhatsApp number, with a threat to kill the whole family if the money was not paid. After the number was blocked, the house was fired on that night.
The incident took place at the house of Haji Mohammad Yusuf in the Hamzarbagh area around 11pm on Monday. The two bullets struck the gate of the house, but no one was hurt. Residents were too frightened to leave the house for a long time afterwards. Police later visited the scene.
The homeowner, Mohammad Yusuf, said his eldest son, Mohammad Shawkat, lives in Dubai. On Monday afternoon, a voice message was sent to Shawkat’s WhatsApp from a foreign number. In it, a man identifying himself as an expatriate in Qatar demanded Tk50 lakh.
The caller said the family had a business and plenty of money, that they must pay Tk50 lakh, and that someone would be sent to collect it and must be handed the cash. If they did not pay, he threatened, the whole family would be killed.
Shawkat told his father, who advised him to block the number rather than reply. The voice message was then deleted from WhatsApp. A few hours later, around 11pm, the house was fired on.
“There was a loud bang when the shots were fired. We were all scared and stayed inside. Later I went down and saw bullet marks on the gate — two bullets had hit it,” Yusuf said.
He said the attackers had threatened the house’s security guard with a weapon, so the guard quickly shut the gate and went inside and could not identify any of them.
Mohammad Yusuf’s family home is in Fatikchhari upazila; they have lived in their own house in Hamzarbagh for about 25 years. Yusuf himself spent many years abroad. His son Shawkat returned home from Dubai a few months ago.
Police said the house is the in-laws’ home of Azizur Rahman Aziz, a leader of the now-banned Swechchhasebak League. Aziz was general secretary of the Chattogram city Swechchhasebak League and was arrested two days after the Awami League government fell on 5 August 2024. He is currently in jail.
Panchlaish police station officer-in-charge Mohammad Zahedul Islam said: “Someone took advantage of the load-shedding to fire two rounds at the house. Our preliminary assessment is that it was done to create panic.”
“We are also taking the extortion voice message seriously. The shooting, the extortion demand and who is behind them — all of it is being investigated,” the OC said.
Several police teams inspected the scene. No case had been filed over the incident yet, the homeowner said. The matter became widely known on Tuesday afternoon, spreading fresh alarm in the area.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report