& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Market turns into criminals' den

Outlaws, drug-peddlers thrive on poor surveillance

SHARIFUL ISLAM with HASAN JAHID TUSHER
Outlawed political outfits and criminal gangs have for long been using Aziz Co-operative Supermarket at Shahbagh as a hideout, taking
advantage of the scanty intelligence watch on it.
According to officials of intelligence agencies, members of Aziz Co-operatives Society and shopowners of the market, operatives of outlawed parties and local criminals use some shops there as their dens and safe havens, where they start gathering since nightfall.
A drug peddling syndicate also operates in the market that houses 573 shops and 160 residential flats, they added.
An official of Special Branch (SB) of Police said they have information that members of banned Sarbahara Party from greater Jessore and Rajshahi regions used to frequently assemble in the shops and flats. "But," he admitted, "We could not identify them, let alone arrest, as no one provided us with specific information about them and we also don't have their file photos."
"We can guess who they are but, fearing attack, don't dare to challenge or bar them from entering the building," said a security guard of the market, requesting not to be named, about outlawed partisans' frequent visits.
A visibly alarmed executive of Aziz Co-operatives Society said the whole market has turned into a den of 'Sarbahara men' causing drastic slide in business. "Law enforcers are informed of the comings and goings of outlaws, local criminals and drug peddlers," he said, "but they hardly take any action."
Manager of the society Sharif Kabirul Islam said as the shops had been sold out so the society has no jurisdiction to monitor who are coming to those or going out.
In two separate operations in May, police arrested four operatives of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) named Mahfuzur Rahman Jewel, Abdur Razzak, Ali Tareq and Shafi Sarker in Shoumo Enterprise of the market.
Police also recovered a sack full of Phensidyle, a linctus abused as a narcotic, six months ago from another shop but could not arrest anyone.
Sources said, posing as students, medical professionals, etc, outlaws from different parts of the country took shelterin some of the flats.
The society executive said he had heard about it and believes it to be true, but claimed the society did not know in which flats the political extremists had stayed.
President of the society Nazmul Ahsan however said they would soon take an initiative to collect details of the shops' title deeds and their nature of business, so that the shopowners could be readily identified whenever needed.
BOMB BLAST
Police until yesterday could not arrest the chief of Manabmukti Samajkalyan Sangstha (MSS), professedly a non-governmental organisation that has its office in the market where a bomb went off last Friday during fabrication.
Ramna police went to 220/B, Outer Circular Road, the address MSS chief Waliur Rahman gave while renting the shop, only to find it to be a fake address.
Neighbouring shopowners said, allured by promises of support in receiving higher education at foreign universities and NGO jobs, many youths used to visit the first-floor MSS office every day.
Police have kept the office, with its floor littered with shards, gunpowder and stone chips and a half of its steel shutter twisted by the blast, off-limits to people.
They started interrogating Kazi Mohammadullah Sohag, one of the two youths injured in the blast, but could not get any lead from him until yesterday.
Sohagh told his interrogators, after he started living in Panthapath area a few months ago, he came to know Khorshed Alam Ripon, his covictim and a criminal on the run. Ripon grew up in that area.
"The nature of Sohag's injury suggests he was not making the bomb. Ripon was doing it," one of the investigators said, adding details would be known after police start quizzing Ripon who is under treatment of his critical wounds at BDR Hospital.
Police are also looking into possibilities of the pair being involved with any outlawed group.