Bangladesh MP found murdered in Kolkata

A member of parliament, who went missing a week ago while travelling in India, has been found murdered in Kolkata, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan.

Anwarul Azim Anar, 56, who won his third consecutive term in a constituency in the border district of Jhenaidah from the Awami League party, went missing on May 13, a day after going to India to seek medical treatment, according to his relatives.

"It was a premeditated murder," Asaduzzaman Khan said at a press briefing at his residence in Dhaka's Dhanmondi on Wednesday.

The home minister said Bangladesh police had arrested three people and they were being interrogated. "We cannot disclose all information at the moment for the sake of the investigation."

Although the home minister announced the murder based on information from the Kolkata police, Indian authorities did not find the body in the New Town flat where MP Azim was said to have been killed.

At a programme at Dhaka University on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said Indian police did not find the body in the flat where Anar was believed to have been killed, citing information from the Bangladesh Mission in Kolkata.

A report on the parliamentarian's disappearance was lodged by his relatives at the Baranagar police station in North Kolkata on May 18.

According to the report, Anar visited the residence of a person named Gopal Biswas in Kolkata on May 12. The next day, he departed from Biswas's residence to see a doctor. He informed his family that he would be back in Bangladesh in the evening.

But he remained incommunicado since then, Anar's personal assistant Abdour Rauf told reporters.

Indian media reported that Anar had several business interests, including transport, and was an influential leader in the sector.

In 2008, Interpol had issued a notice against him in connection with several criminal cases including arms and explosives, as there were several pending cases in Jhenaidah and Chuadanga. Soon after he became an MP for the first time in 2014, polling 95 per cent of the votes, Anar was cleared of the charges.

During that time, Anar had fled to India and stayed in Majidia in Bengal's Nadia. He made friends with many people on this side of the border, according to Indian media. Among those friends was a Gopal Biswas, a gold trader, at whose Baranagar residence the Bangladeshi MP was staying before he went missing.

He entered India through the Darshana border (connecting Bangladesh's Khulna with Nadia) on May 12 for a medical consultation and was staying with Gopal Biswas.

According to Indian news reports, Anar visited Kolkata often for treatment.

After he went incommunicado this time, his daughter Mumtarin Ferdous Doreen on May 19 told reporters she had sought the assistance of the detective branch of Bangladesh police to locate her father.

For the past three days, the Bangladesh police's special unit had been working with Kolkata police, its chief Harun-or-Rashid said. He on Wednesday said, "The cause of death is still unknown."

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her condolences and deep grief over the lawmaker's death.

On Wednesday evening, Anar's daughter Mumtarin Ferdous Doreen filed a case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station of the capital for "kidnap to murder".

However, no one has been named as an accused. After filing the case, Doreen said: "We want a fair investigation into who did it and why. Why did they do it? I want to see the end. I want justice."

The case was filed with the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station since it was Anar's last known and confirmed location in Bangladesh after he left the MP Hostel in Sangsad Bhaban area in Dhaka on May 9.