Awami League MP Anwarul Azim Anar from Jhenaidah-4 constituency who was killed in Kolkata was on a "wanted" list of the Interpol.
Interpol had 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.
Azim, who has been elected three times to the parliament, stood accused in 21 cases, according to his affidavit submitted to the Election Commission before the January 7 national election. Three of those were murder cases, while the rest involved smuggling arms, explosives, drugs and gold, extortion, tender manipulation, and sheltering extremists.
Blood splattered in a flat at a Kolkata suburb where Anwarul Azim Anar was last seen has led to the suspicion that the member of Bangladeshs parliament has been murdered. Azim, who was on a personal visit to Kolkata, has been missing for nine days.
Soon after he became an MP for the first-time in 2014, polling 95 per cent of the votes, Azim was cleared of the charges. During this time, Azim had fled to India and stayed in Majidia in Bengals Nadia. He made friends with many people on the other side of the border.
According to a general diary filed in Kolkata on May 18, the MP went to India for medical treatment on May 12, and was staying with a family friend named Gopal Biswas. At around 1:41pm on May 13, he left Biswass home, apparently to visit a doctor, saying he would return in the evening. However, a WhatsApp message was sent from his phone later that evening saying that he was going to Delhi and that there was no need to call him.
CCTV footage has revealed that apart from Azim, two men and a woman had entered the building, Sanjeeva Garden in New Town, Rajarhat.
Over the next four days, the other three were seen leaving the building, not Azim. What happened to him is being investigated.
Another message was sent on May 15 to Biswas reiterating that he was in Delhi with "VIPs," urging not to call him. Since then, neither Biswas nor Anars family heard from him. Although the Kolkata police have confirmed his death, his body is yet to be recovered, as of writing this editorial.
Three people have already been arrested over what Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has called a "planned murder." The authorities must be forthcoming about any detail they might unearth in the days to come.
