Kolkata: Anwarul Azim Anar, the Bangladesh ruling party MP who is suspected to have been murdered in Kolkata had a very colourful past, going by media reports in Bangladesh and information that is coming out in dribbles from the briefings of Harun Rashid, Additional Commissioner (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Several criminal cases against Azim melted away when he entered politics. Azim, the three-time MP of the ruling Awami League in Bangladesh, was re-elected in the January National poll in Bangladesh from the Jhenidah-4 seat adjacent to the Nadia district of West Bengal. Being a resident of the area, this erstwhile footballer was engaged in smuggling from a very early age and had an Interpol lookout notice issued on him.
Notice Issued By The Interpol
In 2008, Interpol issued a notice against him in connection with several criminal cases, including arms and explosives, as there were several pending cases in Jhenaidah and Chuadanga. Though it was lifted later. Initially, he was involved with left-leaning politics and controlled extremists in the west and South of Bangladesh adjacent to the Bengal border. Using that popularity, in 1993, he was elected the first Commissioner of Kaliganj Municipality. Soon he switched to all forms of illegal trade from explosives, drugs, and gold smuggling to weapons.
Past As An Extortionist
As an extortionist, he controlled the government tenders in his area. Until the moment he joined politics, there were several cases against him, cases which eventually melted away. He engaged with local criminals to develop quite an empire starting in 1986. In the 1990s he started something called the 'Token System' in Bangladesh, whereby tokens were issued to the lorries which were carrying drugs on both sides of the border. The police released the vehicles of token holders.
A bit like Pablo Escobar, he was called the 'drug baron' in Bangladesh and parts of Bengal. His associates in Bengal's North 24 Parganas - in a place called Bagda - were Bengali Hindus and considered him professional. It's from Bagda in Bengal that his Indian counterparts used to deliver contraband merchandise to him.
Vanishing Of Cases After Joining Politics
In the nineties, Azim assisted also, a big gold smuggler in Jhenaidah, Paritosh Thakur. Later with the help of some politicians, he began to trade in illegal small arms. In 1996 he moved from BNP to Awami League but continued with his syndicate and made more money. There are serious allegations and cases against him ranging from murder to smuggling. However after Awami League came to Power in 2009, most of the cases against Azim fell away.
Life After Joining Politics
According to Awami leaders, they were either dissolved or withdrawn. Using that popularity, in 1993, he was elected the first Commissioner of Kaliganj Municipality. In 2009, he was elected chairman of Kaliganj Upazila Parishad. Then he was elected MP from the Awami League three consecutive times in 2014, 2018, and 2024. Somewhere in the process, he managed to get all cases against him dropped.
About The Murder
It is now widely believed that he had many illicit relationships and was particularly fond of one woman. That woman used a pawn to honey-trap him. She came to Calcutta before Azim and called him from central Kolkata to New Town flat in East Kolkata, where other members of the team led by one Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen were waiting to kill him. They strangled him, deskinned him, and cut him into small pieces, separating the flesh from bones, so that the pieces looked like mutton pieces, in case they were caught by the police. These were smeared with turmeric, apparently to prevent odour.
Then his remains were stuffed into plastic bags which were loaded into suitcases with wheels and taken to various parts of Kolkata and disposed of. The flat in which he was killed belonged to an assistant commissioner of the excise department of the Bengal government. The mastermind, Akhtaruzzaman, is believed to have left for the US as he also holds a US passport. His brother is the Mayor of a Municipal Corporation in Bangladesh.
