David Emon, the man who boasted ‘Ask the police commissioner about me’, arrested

Chattogram’s notorious terrorist Mobarak Hossain, alias David Emon, has been arrested. Police said he was detained from the Jhumjhumpur area of Kotwali in Jashore at around 3am on Wednesday.

Jashore Superintendent of Police Syed Rafiqul Islam confirmed the news to Daily Samakal, saying that based on intelligence information David was arrested from Jhumjhumpur after a checkpoint was set up. 

Four teams from the District Detective Police and a team from Kotwali Police took part in the operation, with Chattogram District Detective Police also present. 

David Emon was later handed over to the Chattogram District Police.

Chattogram Range Additional DIG Nazimul Haque told Daily Samakal that officers had been working on the case for a long time. 

Acting on secret information, he was arrested from Jhumjhumpur in Jashore on Tuesday night with the assistance of Jashore Police while attempting to flee to India. 

Other accomplices remain within the intelligence net and will be caught soon.

David Emon is the son of Md Musa from the Kanchannagar area of Fatikchhari in Chattogram. 

He once lived an ordinary life in the locality, but after joining the top terrorist Sazzad Group his name became linked with one murder after another in Chattogram. 

Several photographs of him holding a pistol went viral on social media and he gradually rose to become Sazzad’s second-in-command.

On July 13, terrorists attacked an internet service provider called DDN on Chawkbazar Access Road in Chattogram city. 

A case was filed at the local police station. Later, a RAB-police raid resulted in the arrest of 20 people. 

CCTV footage shows a group of 15 to 20 people suddenly entering the DDN office. Armed with local weapons, they vandalised office computers, mobile phones belonging to staff and various items of furniture while intimidating employees.

Two days before the attack David Emon had demanded a large sum of money from the company owner. On July 11, a WhatsApp call was made to the owner of DDN, with the caller identifying himself as David Emon and demanding a one-off payment of Tk 2 crore followed by Tk 10 lakh every month. When payment was refused the owner was threatened in various ways and told: “My name is David Emon, you can ask the police commissioner about me.” 

Two days after the threat the DDN office in the Maryam Heights building on Chandanpura Access Road under Chawkbazar Police Station was attacked.

The attackers damaged computers, laptops, printers, fingerprint machines, furniture and glass doors. Damage is estimated at about Tk 15 lakh. The miscreants also took Tk47,000, three mobile phones, a Canon printer and the shoulder bag belonging to the organisation’s director, Ariful Islam, from an office drawer. 

The case papers state that the bag contained approximately Tk 35 lakh intended for staff salaries.

In a recent briefing Additional Commissioner of Chattogram Metropolitan Police Muhammad Faisal Ahmed said officers were working to locate David Emon, with intelligence and technical teams involved and a special operation under way to arrest him and other members of the gang.

Law-enforcement agencies have so far arrested eight people in connection with the extortion, attack, vandalism and looting at the DDN office. 

Chawkbazar Police Station and RAB-7 conducted raids across the city and detained Md Yunus, Imran Hossain Chang, Akbar Hossain, Md Sumon, Md Monir alias Keherman, Md Gias Uddin, Md Nayan and Mohammad Abdul Nahid alias Farhad. All have been sent to jail by the court.

According to police information, 12 cases stand against Imran Hossain Chang, eight against Nayan, seven against Monir, six each against Akbar and Sumon, and five against Yunus. 

The charges include murder, extortion, illegal possession of weapons, drugs offences, robbery, human trafficking, smuggling and theft.