‘Juba Dal activists’ accused of extorting Khandaker Delwar’s family
The family of late BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain has filed a police complaint alleging extortion and intimidation by individuals claiming to be local leaders of the BNP’s youth wing, Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal.
According to the complaint, four men—identified as Shaon, 25, Habib, 35, Sajid, 22, and Sunny, 35, —stormed a flat in the Nayatola Greenway area under Hatirjheel Police Station on the night of Friday, 3 October, demanding Tk 1 lakh.
Fearing for their safety, the victims handed over Tk 80,000 in cash withdrawn from a City Bank booth in Moghbazar and were forced to issue a post-dated cheque for Tk 20,000 (cheque no. 4103173).
The incident was reported to police the following day by Tanjin Hamid Mitul, daughter-in-law of the late leader, who recounted a harrowing ordeal in her statement to Jago News.
She said she received an urgent call from her elder sister, Sharmin Wadud Nipa, around 10:35 pm on Friday, requesting Tk 1 lakh. Upon arriving at her sister’s residence at 11:20 pm, she found the four men already present. When she questioned their presence, one of them—allegedly Shaon—flashed a country-made weapon tucked in his waist and reiterated the demand for money.
“Even after we mentioned that this was the home of Khandaker Delwar Hossain and his son Dablu, they became more aggressive,” Mitul said. “They snatched my mobile phone, wouldn’t let me call anyone, and started threatening my children.”
Under duress, she withdrew Tk 80,000 from a nearby ATM at 11:57 pm and handed it to Sunny, along with the Tk 20,000 cheque. The intimidation did not end there: the group returned just after midnight on Saturday, 4 October, and allegedly threatened to kill her sister and her children if they did not vacate the flat within a month.
Hatirjheel Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Raju confirmed receipt of the complaint and said an investigation is underway. “We are reviewing CCTV footage from the area and working to verify the identities and political affiliations of the accused,” he told Jago News.
Khandaker Delwar Hossain, a towering figure in Bangladesh’s political history, served as the sixth Secretary General of the BNP and was elected to parliament five times from Dhaka-1 and Manikganj-1 constituencies.
A key architect of the 1990 anti-dictatorship movement as part of the seven-party alliance, he also held roles as chief whip in multiple parliaments and long presided over the Parliament Members Club. He was posthumously awarded the Ekushey Padak in 2005 for his contributions to the Language Movement. He passed away on 16 March 2011 in Singapore.