Purba Bangla Communist Party leader Saiful arrested

JASHORE, May 29 (UNB): Saiful Alam Member, the second-in-command to Shimul Bhuiyan, a leader of the defunct extremist group Purba Bangla Communist Party, has been arrested by Detective Branch (DB) of police in connection with the murder of Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar.
The arrestee identified as Saiful Alam, 48, is the son of Abul Kashem Mollah from Dattagati village in the ward No- 9 of Payra Union under Abhaynagar Upazila of the Jashore.
The arrest was made during a raid at Adarsha Matsya Hatchery in the Raypara Bablatala area of Jashore city on Tuesday night around 9:30pm.
During the arrest, police recovered a mobile phone with an Indian SIM card and materials for making explosives from Saiful's possession.
According to the DB, Saiful had been hiding at the hatchery for several days.
Sub-Inspector (SI) Mofizul Islam of Jashore DB said the arrestee is a notorious associate of Shimul Bhuiyan. Saiful is an accused listed in charge sheets for the murders of Uday Shankar, Rakib, and Subrata in Jashore, and is also a fugitive in one of these cases.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Habibur Rahman says that, despite identifying the killers of MP Anwarul Azim, it is not yet clear why he was killed.
As US-Bangladeshi citizen Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen, who law enforcers believe is the mastermind of the murder, has yet to be arrested, police in Bangladesh and India have yet to confirm the motive, he said.
The DMP chief's comments to the media came at the opening ceremony of the 'Database and Analysis of Road Crash' (DARC) software training organised at the DMP headquarters on Wednesday.
Habib said, "Those who were involved in the murder have already been identified. Some of them have been arrested. Recovering the body was a big deal. A team of ours has gone to Kolkata and their main objective was to find and identify the body. I learned from the Indian police that some meat was recovered from the septic tank of the house where the murder took place on Tuesday. We will know whether it belongs to our member of parliament Anwarul Azim will only be confirmed after a DNA test."
When asked why the MP was killed, the DMP chief said, "Neither the police of Bangladesh nor the police of India have found the reason for the killing, also known as the motive for the murder. Because the main planner [Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen] has left the country, he could not be arrested. Only once he is arrested will we learn the motive for the murder."