Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Wednesday raided at least six illegal casinos in Dhaka city. More than 180 men and women, casino staff and gamblers were detained during the raids, after which mobile courts jailed them for different terms.
Many of these casinos were reportedly run by leaders of ruling party affiliate organizations, according to sources and locals. During the raids, the elite force also seized around Tk40 lakh, gambling equipment, and illegal liquor, among other items, from three of the casinos.
The first raid, conducted by a RAB 3 team, went down at a casino inside Fakirerpool Youngmen’s Club in the capital’s Fakirapool area in the evening.
Club president and Jubo League’s Dhaka South unit Organizing Secretary Khalid Mahmud Bhuiyan was taken into custody around 8:40 pm, hours after another RAB team cordoned off on Khalid’s home on Road 59 at Gulshan 2 in the afternoon.
Photos of Memon, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Sheikh Hasina were found hanging on walls of a room inside the club.RAB said Khalid was arrested with an illegal firearm, several rounds of bullets and Yaba pills.
Photos inside the Youngmen’s Club have disclosed that Rashed Khan Menon, MP of Dhaka 8 constituency, is the chairman of its governing body.
However, he claimed he was not aware of the casino’s existence.
“I knew that it was a sports club, and this is why I agreed to be its (governing body’s) chairman. I did not know it was being used as a casino,” he told reporters and added that he visited the club only once.
The raids and Khali’s arrest have come just five days after Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina vented anger on some Jubo League leaders at a party meeting.
In the fourth raid, RAB detained 40 people from a casino housed inside the Muktijoddha Sangsad Krira Chakra, a leading sports club, at Gulistan.
Reacting to the raids on casinos run by Jubo League leaders, the organization’s Chairman Omar Faroque Chowdhury on Wednesday said a larger conspiracy was underway to tarnish Bangladesh Awami League’s image.
“If the intelligence branches and media knew about the casinos all along, why wasn’t this information made public earlier?” he asked.
>Juthy Saha
Crackdown on Illegal Casinos and Bars in Bangladesh
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