Habib Sarwar Azad, Sylhet 

During the Awami regime, in a sabotage case, 52 BNP leaders and activists were accused — some ended up in jail while others had to flee their homes and live in hiding. The main witness of that fabricated case was the brother of the BNP secretary candidate, who is the Organizing Secretary of the Awami League.

The accused BNP secretary candidate’s name is Abdus Samad Munshi. He is the son of Kajol Mia from Charagaon village of Uttar Sreepur Union in Tahirpur, Sunamganj. At the same time, Samad is a member of the newly formed Union BNP convening committee, and after the fall of the Awami government, with the support of BNP leaders and activists, he spent a huge amount of money and became the chairman of the Charagaon Land Customs Station Management Committee of the Tahirpur Coal Importer Group.

Abdullah Kudduch alias Kala Kudduch, the organizational secretary of Uttar Sreepur Union Awami League and younger brother of Samad Munshi, has already submitted his nomination form to the Upazila BNP convening committee to secure the post of Union BNP secretary. This has angered party leaders and activists.

On Saturday, Samad Munshi and his brother Abdullah Kudduch alias Kala Kudduch — the Union Awami League’s organizational secretary — together demonstrated their power and influence. Written complaints were submitted to BNP’s upazila, district, and central leaders highlighting how, during the Awami government, BNP leaders and activists were harassed with cases, imprisonment, and forced to flee homes; and how former Awami MP Moazzem Hossain Ratan, fugitive ex-MP Ranjit Chandra Sarkar in London, Upazila Awami League President Abul Hossain Khan, and several other leaders became owners of hundreds of crores of taka under police influence through coal-limestone businesses.

Earlier, on Friday in Sunamganj district town, a press conference was held exposing the illegitimate income sources and influence of the two brothers Samad and Kudduch.

The reporter holds copies of the complaint, video footage of the press conference, and statements of BNP leaders who are aggrieved.

On Saturday, Kamal Hossain, a member of the Uttar Sreepur Union BNP convening committee, said: “Ahead of the national elections in 2023, on the night of 12 November, in the Kolagaon border area of the upazila, a staged sabotage incident was shown and, with the help of the police, Samad Munshi and his brother AL leader Kudduch got me and four BNP leaders arrested from different places of the upazila. The next day, on 13 November, showing seized jute sacks, petrol-filled glass bottles wrapped with red tape, stones, machetes, and gas lighters, a case was filed against 52 BNP leaders and activists.”

In that case, BNP nomination seekers — former Upazila Parishad chairman Anisul Haque and another nomination aspirant, former Upazila Parishad chairman Kamruzzaman Kamrul — were also made accused.

He further alleged: “Because of the false case by Samad-Kudduch, some of us were in jail, many had to remain in hiding for 4–5 months away from families, and it affected our children’s education as well. Through their ring, they looted limestone worth Tk 60 lakh from my LCs at Bagli Customs Station.”

Former UP member and another member of Uttar Sreepur Union BNP convening committee, Shamsul Haque, alleged: “In 2014, the district BNP wanted to give a post to Samad Munshi but he refused. Earlier, after the Awami government came to power, Samad secretly made relations with Upazila AL leader Abul Hossain Khan to help his brother Abdullah Kudduch get a post in the Awami League.”

Later, even though BNP did not participate in the “day-night voting” elections, both former MPs Ratan and Ranjit Chandra Sarkar’s national elections, upazila parishad elections, and union parishad elections saw AL candidates openly funded by Kudduch and secretly financed by Samad Munshi.

In exchange, they gained political benefits, evaded customs duty, legitimized coal-limestone smuggling, sold smuggled coal under the pretense of “floating coal,” looted money under the cover of stone and sand leases, and engaged in extortion across haor areas. Samad Munshi and his brother, AL leader Kudduch, ran these operations.

He further alleged: “I myself was an accused in the 2023 sabotage case. The so-called evidence and seized items in that case were actually supplied to police at the time by Kudduch, another AL leader Rani Gafur’s son Saiful alias Murgi Saiful of Kolagaon, and his nephew Ibrahim from India. The main witness in the case is Kudduch. Now, while in hiding, Kudduch is spending huge amounts of money to re-install his elder brother Samad Munshi, a beneficiary of the Awami government, into the Union BNP secretary post.”

Mahar Ali, a 75-year-old resident of Charagaon area, said: “Samad Munshi’s father Kajol Mia, during his time with the Charagaon BOP BDR, was a spy for coal smugglers. He was once caught by Indian BSF and jailed for 5–6 months in Shillong jail, Meghalaya. Samad Munshi first worked as a rickshaw puller in Sylhet town. Later, under both BNP and Awami governments, following his father’s path, he and his brother Kudduch jointly made hundreds of crores of taka through coal smuggling, then under the cover of coal importing companies. They jointly invested in multiple houses and plots in Sunamganj district town’s Solaghar, Hasnagar, Maratila, Old Bus Station, a multi-storied market on DS Road, more shop quotas in another market, brick kilns, several housing plots in Sylhet, smuggling currency to India, and also purchased depots, offices, and haor lands in Charagaon, Tahirpur.”

On Saturday afternoon, attempts to reach Abdullah Kudduch, Organizing  Secretary of Uttar Sreepur Union AL, for BNP leaders’ allegations, failed as his mobile phone was found switched off.

Later in the afternoon, when BNP convening committee member of Uttar Sreepur Union, Samad Munshi, was contacted over phone regarding BNP leaders’ allegations, he said: “My father was indeed once arrested by BSF and jailed in Shillong when he was ploughing in the border area. In our area, everyone who is wealthy became so through work. I too once pulled a rickshaw in Sylhet.”

He further said: “From 2009 to 2014, I was Union BNP secretary. After that, I was not given any post. In 2017, I again got the post of Upazila BNP’s religious affairs secretary. My brother’s involvement in Awami League politics has nothing to do with me. The allegations made by political opponents about smuggling, currency trafficking to India, and illegal income are completely false, fabricated, and baseless.”