Top Gano Mukti Fouz leader held in India

23 November 2009, 17:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Kushtia

Aminul Islam Mukul, one of the founders of extremist outfit Gano Mukti Fouz (GMF), was arrested in India on Saturday night. An Indian court on Sunday placed Mukul on five-day remand, police said. A team of Bangaon police led by sub-divisional police chief Soumendra Das raided a house owned by one Robin Roy at Ramkrishna Palli in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal at about 9:30pm and arrested him. Mukul was residing at a rented house there with some of his accomplices for the last three years. Police said, they seized his passport which showed him as Nur-e-Alam alias Alam. Police also recovered a ration card of the same identity issued by West Bengal government. Shahin Rumi, second-in-command of the outfit, who was also hiding in India in the pseudonym of Sohel Ahmed alias Dipu was with him but he managed to escape arrest, police said. A source close to the outfit claimed that police also seized a huge amount of Bangladeshi, Indian and US currencies from Mukul. Police at first interrogated Mukul at their office and later produced him before North 24 Parganas court on Sunday seeking five days remand. The court granted the prayer. Sources said, Indian police are processing a case against Mukul accusing him of intrusion in Indian territory. According to Kushtia police, Mukul was leading GMF for the last nine years after the killing of the outfit's founder Mir Illyas Hossain Dilip in July, 2000. Hailing from Alampur village in Sadar upazila in Kushtia, Mukul is an accused in at least 50 murder cases filed with different police stations in Kushtia, Jhenidah and Chuadanga.