Sylhet Bureau

Police arrested three smugglers, including the son of a BNP leader from Tahirpur, Sunamganj, while they were transporting a consignment of smuggled coal from India, evading customs duty.

The arrested individuals are Rashid Mia, son of Layeys Mia from the border village of Sangsar Par (Charagaon) in Uttar Sreepur Union of Tahirpur; Khurshid Alam, son of Hormuz Ali from the same village; and Din Islam, son of Abdul Barek from the village of Kalagaon.

The arrested Rashid is the son of Layeys, the former convener of the newly formed Tahirpur Uttar Sreepur Union BNP committee.

Khurshid is the nephew of Habibur Rahman Habi, an Uttar Sreepur Union Juba Dal leader and a source for smugglers (who is also an accused in a case).

On Thursday afternoon, 320 sacks of smuggled coal and a steel-bodied trawler (with an engine) were seized on the haor route in Madhya Nagar, Sunamganj.

The three were arrested from the trawler loaded with the smuggled coal.

Madhya Nagar Police Station OC Monibur Rahman confirmed the arrest of the coal smugglers and the filing of a case.

According to the case and local sources, a group of smugglers was taking a trawler loaded with smuggled coal from across the Charagaon-Kalagaon border in Tahirpur to Kalmakanda in Netrokona, as they do every day.

After receiving a tip, Madhya Nagar police conducted a raid by water and arrested the three smugglers—Rashid, Khurshid, and Din Islam—along with the trawler laden with smuggled coal.

It is alleged that the group, including Chan Mia, the son of the former convener of the Uttar Sreepur Union BNP committee, and others—Habibur Rahman Habi (accused), a self-proclaimed Juba Dal leader and smuggler source, Anowar Hossain (accused), a self-proclaimed Sainik League leader, and his brother Sohag, Nao Muslim Dipak (accused), Tablet Sohel, Shafiqul Islam Bhaibaiya (accused), the late Mizah Mahaldar’s son Chila Saiful, and the Awal gang—have been collecting "tolls" of Tk 70,000 to 100,000 per trawler to facilitate the passage of smuggled coal. They allegedly used fake permits for previously L/C-ed coal from the Charagaon customs station, as well as fraudulent "mini-pass" and cooperative society permits as a cover, with the alleged complicity of Tahirpur Police Station OC Delwar, police officers from the Tekerghat Police Camp, and some dishonest members of the BGB.

As is the case every day and night, 15 to 16 trawlers loaded with smuggled coal worth two to three crore Taka left from Charagaon, Kalagaon river, Baliaghat's Lalghat Paschimpara, Sreepur's Patlai river, and Sangsar Par between Wednesday evening and Thursday early morning, heading for Kalmakanda in Netrokona.

Officials from the Tahirpur Police Station, Tekerghat Police Camp, BGB's Charagaon-Baliaghat BOP, and the river police are allegedly unwilling to seize or detain these trawlers.

On Thursday, SI Mohammad Ali, the in-charge of the temporary police camp at Tekerghat in Tahirpur, stated that no member of the police station or the Tekerghat police camp is involved with the coal smuggling extortion ring.