Staff Reporter :
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah said on Saturday that police did not find any link of Bangladeshi businessman Piyar Ahmed Akash who deported from Malaysia with militancy.
He is now in Feni Jail in two arms cases. Akash is a wanted criminal in an arms case, but there is no evidence of his involvement with the Gulshan Holey Artisan Bakery attack or any other such attack, said the DMP Commissioner at a debate competition programme at Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) on Saturday.
The DMP chief said, “We requested Interpol for arresting Akash, who went there few years ago despite arrest warrant against him. In view of this, the Malaysia authorities deported him on September 2.
The Interpol also issued a red notice to arrest Akash.”
The deportation news of Akash came in the limelight after a Malaysian newspaper ‘The Star’ published a news saying that Akash had a relation with one of the suspected Gulshan café attackers Andaleeb Rahman.
Earlier, Bangladeshi police sought help from International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) to bring back Akash.
On August 19, Malaysian police arrested Akash in connection with money embezzlement and sent him to jail. Afterwards, the Malaysian authorities sent him to Bangladesh on September 2.
When he arrived at the Dhaka airport, police arrested him and sent him to Daganbhuiyan on September 3.
The following day, he was produced in the court and the court sent him to jail.
Asked about the report, DMP Commissioner said: “We don’t know what the Malaysian newspaper reported. But till now we haven’t found his link with the Holey Artisan Bakery attack or any other terror attack.”
“Even Malaysia did not inform us formally or officially about such details. But we will scrutinise the matter,” he said.
According to case, Piayr Ahmed Akash, 35, son of M Ibrahim, an inhabitant resident of Nayanpur village in Daganbhuiyan upazila of Feni district, was accused in two arms cases around 11 years ago. He was made an accused in the cases filed with Feni Sadar Police Station and Sudharam Police Station in Noakhali in 2005 for stealing two AK-47 rifles from 10 truckloads of sophisticated weapons seized in Chittagong on April 2, 2004.
Akash was arrested by law enforcers with an AK-47 rifle on September 18, 2005. But, he came out of prison on bail and fled to Malaysia in 2007.
He was also acquitted from one of the cases while secured bail in another and then fled to Malaysia.
Akash, along with other partners, opened a restaurant named ‘Rashana Bilash’ in Malaysia which earned a lot of fame for Bangladeshi food.
Few years later, he opened his own restaurant following a dispute with his partners.
Akash’s uncle Abdul Quader claimed that Akash had been implicated in the arms cases as part of a conspiracy.
He later traveled to Malaysia and opened a restaurant “Rasana Bilash” with another Bangladeshi, said Abdul Quader.
Aslam Uddin, Officer-in-Charge of Dagon Bhuiyan Police Station, said, “We arrested him with the help of law enforcers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and produced him in a Feni Special Tribunal on September 4, which sent him to jail in connection with the arms cases.
