Kushtia Sadar police have arrested a father and son accused of trying to revive the activities of the banned Awami League, in a raid on a tip-off.
The raid took place in the Mollateghoria area of Kushtia on Friday night, and Kushtia Sadar police station officer-in-charge Zakir Hossain confirmed the arrests.
Those arrested are Awami League leader Sheikh Abdur Rahman, 60, and his son, local Awami League leader Sharif Sheikh, 38. Local sources allege that, besides political activity for the banned party, the two are involved in online gambling.
Local sources also allege that during the previous Awami League government Sharif Sheikh was close to the influential Kushtia MP Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif and wielded power in the area through intimidation, and that he was part of a syndicate that collected money from expatriates in Singapore and the United States through hundi, outside legal banking channels, with the foreign currency going to accounts linked to Hanif and the equivalent paid in taka to the expatriates’ families in Bangladesh.
According to the same sources, after Sharif Sheikh recently returned from Singapore he and his father held secret meetings to regroup and reactivate scattered activists of the banned party, and law enforcers put them under watch before arresting them on Friday night.
Police said cases and legal proceedings against the two were under way and they would be sent to court.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report