MP Azim murder: Jhenidah AL leader picked up for questioning

The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police picked up a Jhenidah Awami League leader for questioning in connection with the murder of Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar.

Last night, a DB team detained Kazi Kamal Ahmed Babu from the Adarshapara area in Jhenidah, said Shahin Uddin, officer-in-charge of Jhenidah Police Station, who did not provide further details, reports our Jhenaidah correspondent.

Kamal, who is relief and social welfare affairs secretary of Jhenidah AL, is a cousin of Aktaruzzaman, one of the masterminds behind the murder.

A DB official, speaking anonymously to The Daily Star, confirmed that Babu was taken into custody for interrogation related to MP Anwarul Azim's killing.

Kamal's wife, Kazi Shirina Afroz, said her husband was taken by police last night. "They came from Dhaka. I asked why they were taking him. They just said they needed to talk to him," she said.

Kamal's elder sister, Jasmin Khatun, said they are nine siblings and Aktaruzzaman is their cousin.

Azim went to Kolkata on May 12 and spent the night at a friend's house. He left the next day saying he had a doctor's appointment.

Nine days later, India and Bangladesh police said the MP was murdered in a flat in Kolkata's New Town.

Investigators so far found that some of his friends, such as Aktaruzzaman, and their relatives, joined hands in the murder mission. Aktaruzzaman is a Bangladesh-born US citizen.

The suspected coordinator of the murder, Amanullah, who goes by the alias Shimul Bhuiyan, is Aktaruzzaman's brother-in-law, while arrestee Tanvir Bhuiyan, who suffocated the lawmaker with a pillow to the face, is Amanullah's nephew, sources said.

Celesty Rahman, another arrestee, is Aktaruzzaman's friend, and Siam, now in custody of West Bengal CID, was introduced to Aktaruzzaman by Jihad Howlader, the butcher who dismembered Azim's body.