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Police were yet to find the motive behind the killing of ruling lawmaker Anwarul Azim Anar, who was killed in a Kolkata flat, while his alleged role in cross-border smuggling came under fresh scrutiny.

Authorities in Bangladesh, however, said on Thursday that they had already identified the people involved in the killing of the Jhenaidah-4 lawmaker.

At least four people suspected of being involved in the murder have been arrested by the police in Bangladesh and India.

The diary that was filed in Kolkata after Anwarul went missing turned into a murder case at Kolkata’s New Town police station, while Anwarul’s daughter filed a kidnapping case with Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station.

Kolkata police arrested a person, detained one, and recovered a car that was used for the dumping of Anwarul’s body.

Anwarul’s daughter, Mumtarin Ferdous Doreen, in her case on Wednesday evening, accused unknown people of abducting her father from a residential area of lawmakers in the NAM building.

Anwarul went missing on May 14, two days after he travelled to Kolkata for ‘treatment.’

Following his killing, Anwarul’s involvement in cross-border gold smuggling came under a fresh spotlight.

Anwarul was on the Interpol list in 2008 before becoming a lawmaker. In his affidavit before the January 7 general election, he mentioned about 21 cases against him in the past. He was exempted from charges in all of these cases during the successive tenures of the ruling Awami League. 

Journalists on Wednesday asked the AL general secretary, Obaidul Quader, and home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, at separate programmes in Dhaka about Anwarul’s involvement in cross-border gold smuggling.

Both of them replied that the issue would be investigated.

‘Investigation will determine whether the deceased Anwarul Azim Anar was involved in any illicit activities in India. I cannot say anything until the investigation is complete. There is no place for criminals in the Awami League,’ Quader said during an introductory meeting with newly-formed youth and sports sub-committee members at the Dhaka district Awami League office.

Quader said that Anwarul was nominated by the party based on his popularity in the constituency, not his background.

Responding to questions from reporters at the  secretariat on Thursday, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that the killers of Anwarul had been identified.

Almost all of it has been uncovered, he said, adding that investigators were very close to identifying those who killed Anwarul. 

Briefing reporters in Dhaka, Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s detective branch chief, Harun-or-Rashid, revealed on Thursday that initial plans to kill Jhenaidah-4 lawmaker Anwarul were made in two houses located in the Gulshan and Bashundhara areas of the capital two to three months ago.

He also said that the original plan was to carry out the murder in Dhaka.

‘However, the perpetrators decided to commit the crime in Kolkata due to extensive surveillance by the Bangladesh police,’ he said.

‘There is no possibility of finding his [Anwarul] body. However, body parts can be found separately. And we are always in touch with the Indian police,’ he said.

Harun said that the killers tried to hide the body in such a way that there was no trace.

Different parts of the body were sent to different places on different trolleys.

‘The Kolkata and Bangladesh police are working jointly on this case. If not the entire body, hopefully, some parts will be recovered,’ he said.

He said that according to the plan, the mastermind of the murder, Shimul Bhuiyan, his accomplice Tanveer Bhuiyan, and Shilasti Rahman went to Kolkata on April 30.

Harun revealed that Shimul went there with a new passport in the name of Amanullah Aman.

Shimul is among three people arrested by DB in connection with the murder.

Following the murder, the West Bengal CID talked to the media for the first time on Wednesday evening.

Two Indian investigators arrived in Dhaka on Thursday following the murder incident. 

CID IG Akhilesh Chaturvedi spoke to the media after inspecting the apartment in the Sanjeeva Gardens building in New Town.

He said that the information they had suggested Anwarul was last seen while entering Sanjeeva Gardens.

‘We are not yet clear whether he came here previously. However, we have not been able to recover his body,’ Akhilesh said.

He, however, confirmed that Anwarul had been killed.

The Kolkata police told the media that a government employee named Sandeep Ray is the owner of the flat where Anwarul was killed.

An individual named Akhtaruzzaman, a United States citizen, had rented the apartment, he said.

Both Bangladeshi and Indian police are now searching for Akhtaruzzaman, a close friend of Anwarul.

Akhtaruzzaman, the younger brother of Jhenaidah’s Kotchandpur municipal mayor, Shahiduzzaman, is locally known as Shahin Mia. 

Shahin, however, claimed in an interview with a private television channel that he was not involved in the incident and that, at the time of the murder, he was in Bangladesh.

‘Someone is trying to make me guilty. I have already left Bangladesh as I am a US citizen,’ he said. 

Referring to Kolkata police, several West Bengal media outlets reported that Anwarul was strangled to death at the New Town apartment on May 13.

Media reports said that Anwarul’s body was cut up and removed over three days, from May 16–18.

Anandabazar, a Bengali-language Indian newspaper, said that CCTV footage from Sanjeeva Gardens showed Anwarul arriving from Baranagar in a vehicle. The West Bengal CID is questioning the vehicle’s driver.

A ride-sharing vehicle was seen in CCTV footage leaving several suspicious individuals on board, Anandabazar said.

Citing Delhi-based sources Indian media outlet Northeast News said Anwarul was responsible for illegally trading and transporting gold from the Middle East to Bangladesh.

‘A couple of years ago, this person purchased a gold and diamond store in Dubai from an Indian national. He operates a diamond cutting unit in Rajasthan’s Jaipur and a diamond store in Dhaka’s Gulshan,’ it said. 

According to various media reports, Anwarul crossed the border to India in 2007 when the then army-backed caretaker government launched a joint operation against ‘suspected criminals.’

Earlier, his house was also raided during Operation Clean Heart during the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s tenure.

Anwarul was also previously the chairman of the Kaliganj upazila parishad.

In 2004, Anwarul Azim became the general secretary of the Kaliganj upazila Awami League in the Jhenaidah district, and he was made president of the upazila unit last year.