UK expatriate’s house and land encroachment in Sylhet

Sylhet Bureau:
A complaint has been filed with the Range DIG of Sylhet Police regarding the ongoing encroachment of a UK expatriate’s house and land in Sylhet. On May 14, his cousin Awlad filed the complaint on behalf of the expatriate.
According to the complaint,
UK expatriate Mohammad Kamal Ahmed purchased a 7-acre plot of land in Ward No. 9, Bagbari Mouza of Sylhet City Corporation in 2019. Later, he built a house on this land, modernized the boundary wall, gate, etc. He installed a name plate at the main gate of the house with the name Osmaninagar House. The names of Kamal Ahmed and his sons are written as the owners. House number 47/4, Narsingh Tila Bagbari Sylhet. Expatriate Kamal Ahmed lived in that house after coming to Bangladesh with his family. But in June 2024, Kamal Ahmed rented the house to Mosammat Hasna Begum and her husband Muhibur Rahman of Jagannathpur Upazila of Sunamganj for 12 thousand taka per month. After that, Muhibur Rahman went abroad, and now Hasna Begum is living in the house. Although she initially paid rent for a few months, she has refrained from paying rent for the last few months. When the owner asked for rent, she demanded a ransom of 35 lakh taka. The tenants are threatening that they will not leave the house if they do not pay. However, although they paid the rent regularly in the beginning, they have refrained from paying rent for the last 7 months. Currently, Hasna Begum has a debt of 84 thousand taka for the house rent. The complaint further states that when the owner gave them a notice to pay the dues and vacate the house, the occupying tenants wasted time in the past with various excuses. When Hasna Begum left the house and asked for the dues, Hasna Begum behaved recklessly, like a lady terrorist Hasna. In addition, the leader of the Sahaniya Volunteer Party, Kamruzzaman Dipu, is also threatening to pay the ransom by acting as an accomplice of this woman. The complainant mentioned that Kamal Ahmed, a UK expatriate, has been in Britain for several decades, but he has acquired real estate assets through extensive investments in Bangladesh. In addition, he has hundreds of bighas of land in Kanaighat, Zaintapur, Gowainghat and Companyganj in Sylhet. There are stones, sand and forests in those places. A vicious circle has started various conspiracies against him in order to consume the assets he bought by executing documents. The circle has already threatened to make Kamal Ahmed a member of the Awami League and run a campaign.
The complaint states that various conspiracies are being hatched against Kamal Ahmed at the instigation of an influential leader of the UK BNP, without disclosing his name.
Kamal Ahmed, a UK expatriate, said that he came to Bangladesh in January this year. After staying in the country for a month on business, he went back to London. At that time, a dispute arose with an influential leader of the UK BNP regarding business matters in Sylhet. He said that huge stones were found underground in the land he had bought in Kanaighat and Jaflong. The BNP leader told him, “Make me a partner in your business and I will help you in every way.” He agreed to the leader’s words with a simple mind. According to the discussion, he executed a written agreement with the elder brother of the BNP leader and appointed him as a business partner. As a partner, the brother of the BNP leader started lifting hundreds of trucks of stones from my place at night without informing me and selling them. After receiving the news, I called the leader and wanted to know about the matter. He said, “Now lifting stones is prohibited, but it is not prohibited for us, the police are obliged to do whatever we say.” He cut off the phone line saying that he was looking into the matter. Later, we had an argument with him about this. He was forced to forbid the leader’s brother from entering his place. The BNP leader became angry at this incident. He threatened to see Kamal Ahmed. He also threatened to take extreme revenge by making him a member of the Awami League and campaigning for him.
Kamal Ahmed further said that two police officers in Sylhet are behaving unfairly against him. Now I have not mentioned anyone’s name but if their unfair demands continue, I will inform everyone by holding a press conference with the names of the accused along with appropriate evidence. As an expatriate, he has sought everyone’s cooperation.