In Natore's Gurudaspur, Chhatra Dal leader killing blamed on feud between MP's two sons; elder son arrested

In Gurudaspur, Natore, a feud over local dominance between the two sons of Member of Parliament Abdul Aziz has been blamed for a killing. Shakil Islam (32), member-secretary of the Gurudaspur municipal unit of Chhatra Dal and a follower of the younger son, was attacked and later died. The allegation is that the elder brother, Nuruzzaman Mintu, had him killed. Police have arrested Mintu in the case.

Shakil was attacked on the night of October 14. He later died on the night of October 26 while undergoing treatment in Dhaka. Local leaders and activists say that before the attack on his follower Shakil, the younger son, Mahmuduzzaman Sohag, was also looking for his own target. That target was Sujoudoula Sujan, a former convener of the upazila Chhatra Dal.

Sujan claims that over a previous dispute, Sohag threatened him by mobile phone on the night of October 12. Sohag then came, armed and with a group, to where Sujan was staying. Sujan says he left the place two minutes earlier and survived. In his words, 'I am now moving around holding my life in my hands.'

BNP worker Shah Alam had protested the attack on Shakil in a video message on Facebook. An attack on Shah Alam then took place on October 18 at Nayabazar, allegedly led by Mintu. Shah Alam claims he was beaten for protesting the attack on Shakil. He says people in the area are now held hostage by the MP's two sons.

Party leaders and activists in Gurudaspur say the two sons became reckless after Abdul Aziz became an MP. They allege that the elder son Mintu is addicted to drugs and involved in the drug trade, and that he became the owner of a large amount of money through extortion. Various allegations of drug dealing, extortion and occupation against the two brothers are now coming forward, and MP Abdul Aziz himself has come under pressure over his sons' activities.

Sujoudoula Sujan said Mintu had been in politics from before, while his younger brother Sohag had never been in politics before. Sohag entered politics after August 5. After becoming an MP, Abdul Aziz began giving Sohag more importance, Sohag took control of the upazila, and the MP even decided to make Sohag a candidate in the upazila election. Sujan claimed Mintu, angered by this, turned to the criminal world.

Mintu was joint convener of the Gurudaspur upazila Jubo Dal. After his arrest on the murder allegation, he was expelled. His brother Sohag is a former assistant secretary of the upazila BNP. An upazila BNP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two brothers have a bitter relationship. For that reason Mintu left home and was living in a separate rented house in the upazila headquarters.

According to that BNP leader, 25 to 30 lakh taka was recently taken in fertilizer dealer appointments, Sohag's brother-in-law also received a dealership, and Mintu himself received one dealership but did not get a share of the money. The leader said all government offices of two upazilas are under the control of the younger son Sohag, and that he also does contracting under other names. Relations with Mintu deteriorated further over these matters. Recently, at a prize distribution ceremony for a football tournament, the two brothers argued publicly and at one stage went behind the stage and showed pistols to each other. In that situation MP Abdul Aziz left the stage without distributing the prizes.

When Sohag was phoned on Friday to ask about the matter, he claimed he had not gone to that ceremony at all. He said, 'There is an opposing faction inside the party. There are Jamaat and Awami League people. They are now spreading various disinformation. In fact, none of this has any basis.'

Local residents say that after Abdul Aziz became an MP, wherever illegal pond excavation took place in the area, Mintu took a share. They claim he pocketed a large amount of money by selling pond soil, and that as long as he was selling soil, he did not allow the upazila administration to conduct any raid.

Three months ago, Rofatullah Sarkar dug a pond on about 11 bighas of land in the Dharbaria area of Gurudaspur. He said that as soon as work began, Mintu appeared there and said he would sell the soil. Mintu then supplied 4,200 tractors of soil from there to brickfields, each truck of soil was sold for 1,200 to 1,500 taka, and Rofatullah claimed Mintu took about 60 lakh taka from there. In his account, as long as soil was being cut, he was not allowed to go to the pond at all, and 10 to 12 of Mintu's men were present at all times.

Rofatullah further said that after the pond excavation ended, he had his cousin Faruk Hossain request Mintu to pay the 9 lakh taka excavator rent. Angered by this, Mintu had police detain him, framed him as a drug user, took him to a mobile court, and had him sent to jail with a four-month sentence. He claimed that on the day the soil sale ended, Mintu also had the excavator seized through the UNO.

To find the reason behind Shakil's killing, ten leaders and activists in Gurudaspur and people connected with the investigation were spoken to. They said Shakil did politics with Mintu from 2018 until before the 2024 mass uprising, but when Sohag entered politics he began doing politics with him, and Mintu was angered by this. An investigation-related source said Mintu controlled the local drug syndicate, that a few months ago an 8 lakh taka yaba consignment came to Gurudaspur from Tarash in Sirajganj, and that Shakil embezzled the money from that consignment. The source said Mintu, angered, planned to punish him.

Earlier, on April 20, Shakil wrote in a Facebook status, 'I am very much in doubt about my life. A big brother is contacting various circles and groups to kill me.' He also wrote that he had spoken to the officer-in-charge and filed a diary at the police station mentioning names, and that if anything happened to him, a case should be filed according to that diary. However, Additional Superintendent of Police of the district police Iftekhayer Alam said no trace of any such general diary was found.

After Shakil's death, a force called the 'Chata Group' has come into discussion in Gurudaspur. Shakil's father Robiul Karim claimed that while alive, Shakil had said Chata Group members Irfan Newaz and Md Habib had attacked him. Enquiries in the area found that followers of US expatriate local businessman Russell Hossain are called 'Chata' in the area, and that Mintu patronised the Chata Group.

Russell Hossain is a resident of Kochugari village in Dharabarisha union, Gurudaspur, and does business in Oklahoma in the United States. During the Awami League period he is said to have helped that party's leaders with money. He has a shopping mall at Chanchkoir bazar in the upazila headquarters. After Shakil's burial, that shopping mall was attacked.

A senior officer of the Natore district police, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mintu had tasked the Chata Group with punishing Shakil for a drug-related reason, and that US expatriate businessman Russell Hossain supplied the money. When Russell Hossain was contacted about the matter, he said, 'Why would I supply money? In fact, the MP's family wants to gain immunity by shifting blame onto me.' He claimed he has been exhausted paying extortion since the uprising to protect his village home and car, that Mintu took money from him repeatedly, that his father also phoned him during the vote, and that he had to spend 30 to 35 lakh taka on his election.

The Shakil murder case is being investigated by Shafiqul Islam, a sub-inspector of the district police Detective Branch (DB). District DB Inspector Nazrul Islam said that on Thursday night two men, Anisur Rahman and Al-Amin, were taken into custody for interrogation, and that they are Chata Group members. After a three-day remand, Mintu was produced before court on Friday afternoon, when the investigating officer applied for another seven days of remand, but there was no hearing in court. DB Inspector Nazrul Islam said the remand application hearing will be held later, and the court sent the accused to jail.