Loans after rally: Mahbubul Alam, who announced Suhrawardy Udyan event, detained by CTTC

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has detained Md Mahbubul Alam Chowdhury, one of the organisers who tried to gather a massive crowd in Suhrawardy Udyan and Shahbagh areas today (25 November) by luring hundreds of people from different districts with the false promise of big interest-free loans from the government.

A Cybercrime Investigation Division team of DMP's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit detained Mahbubul during a raid in the capital's Shantinagar area at around 8:15pm today, according to a press release issued by the DMP's media and public relations department.

It said the raid was conducted based on a tip-off. Mahbubul was later handed over into the custody of Shahbagh Police station, where a case is being filed.

According to CTTC sources, Mahbubul is the senior joint member secretary of the central committee of "Ahingsa Ganaavyuthan Bangladesh", or Nonviolent People's Upheaval Bangladesh (NPUB), and also one of its key conveners.

A senior leader of  the little-known organisation, Mahbubul was one of the NPUB leaders and members who on 22 November -- at a media briefing at the National Press Club -- had announced the Suhrawardy Udyan rally for today.

Earlier in the evening, DMP also detained ABM Mostafa Amin, the main NPUB convener, over the incident, Sohel Rana, additional deputy commissioner of DMP's Ramna division, told The Business Standard.

However, he said, Amin -- who is also the convener of Forward Party -- has been admitted to a hospital due to illness and a case was being filed against him.

Police are yet to confirm whether both Amin and Mahbubul would be shown arrested in the same case and what the charges against them would be.

Under the banner of NPUB, a large crowd of hundreds of people, arriving in numerous buses, microbuses, and pickups, had started gathering at Suhrawardy Udyan on the Dhaka University (DU) campus and Shahbagh late last night (24 November) for the rally called today.

The people, who came from rural areas of different districts, were told they would get interest-free loans between Tk1 lakh and Tk1 crore, without collateral, from the government after attending the rally.

DU students and police later managed to convince the people to leave the Udyan and Shahbagh areas after informing them that there was no rally scheduled today and there was no programme scheduled to distribute loans either.

However, the number of people started rising this morning, creating traffic disruption in the area at around 7am. After they were convinced to leave the area too, the situation started returning to normal gradually.

Talking to the media, Shahbagh Police Station Officer-in-Charge Shahabuddin Shahin said NPUB had sought permission to hold a large gathering but was denied.

"But they still lured people from the villages with the promise of Tk1 lakh in loans. Police did not allow people to gather in those areas," he said.

Victims, each of whom paid a registration fee of Tk1,000 to the members of NPUB, reported being told that the government would give out the loans from the laundered money brought back from abroad.

Many were carrying a leaflet, which had Amin's picture, calling on people from all walks of life who are interested in poverty alleviation by getting capital from Tk1 lakh to Tk1 crore without interest, without collateral, to participate in the programme.