A Murderous Officer Who Demonized An Elite Force Is Still All smiles!

 

A dreadfully murderous Army officer Brigadier General Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar is currently posted in Savar Cantonment holding the post of Station Commander. When Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar was Additional Director General (Colonel) in elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), he abused his power in all illegitimate ways during ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's regime which fell apart on 5 August 2024.

Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar was promoted to the post of Additional DG of RAB in June 2019. The then RAB Director General Benazir Ahmed adorned Tofayel Ahmed with the rank and badges of RAB Additional DG in RAB Headquarters. There are widespread allegations of human rights violations against Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar. On the other hand, Benazir Ahmed later on became Inspector General of Police (IGP) and amassed huge amounts of money and accumulated a countless range of assets both in Bangladesh and abroad in absolutely unauthorized ways. Benazir Ahmed escaped from Bangladesh even before Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power.

It may be recalled that The Asian Age covered a report borrowed from The Economist titled "The Government Initiates a Coup at Bangladesh's Bank: Board Members Receive a Visit from Military Intelligence" which appeared on 6 April 2017. Following the publication of this report in The Asian Age, the then Director General of DGFI Major General Akbar Hossain threatened and scared The Asian Age in every possible way. Besides, Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar raided the Banani residence of the Chairman of The Asian Age Editorial Board right after the publication of the above report in 2017 in an attempt to abduct the newspaper's founder and Chairman. It must not be forgotten that the United States government imposed embargoes on a number of RAB officers including Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar in 2021 on charges of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Major General Akbar Hossain was later on promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General but he fled away from Bangladesh as soon as Sheikh Hasina was overthrown and she ran away from Bangladesh too. The demonization of abusive and squalid lawbreakers like Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar was facilitated by former Chief of Staff of Bangladesh Army General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia was evicted from her residence inside Dhaka Cantonment in 2010 when Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan was Quarter Master General (QMG). General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan became the owner of a 500 megawatt power plant, a private university and a private hospital after retiring from service. On the other hand, Lieutenant General Akbar Hossain has purchased a massive scale of assets in England, Thailand, Canada and some other countries reportedly. Allegations also show that Lieutenant General Akbar Hossain was an infamous drug addict and a patron of graft and anomalies who enabled his classmate Fazle Kabir to hold the Bangladesh Bank Governor post from 2016 to 2022 and thus the country's financial and banking sectors were devastated with corruption and irregularities. Akbar Hossain also broadly assisted Sheikh Hasina's party Awami League to win the elections held in 2014 and 2018 by means of comprehensive rigging and unlawful electoral manipulation.

On the other hand, Lieutenant General Akbar Hossain admitted his daughter in one of the most expensive academic institutions in England in which only affluent people like Royal Family Members can afford to study. When that particular academic institution's Bangladesh agency office asked Akbar Hossain whether he would be able to pay the egregiously high tuition fees of around 2 crore taka in England, Akbar Hossain reportedly answered "Money is no problem for me".

Akbar Hossain hails from a very average family whose father was a diploma engineer. That's why glaring questions have come up how a military officer turned out to be one of the richest men in Bangladesh!

When Akbar Hossain was Director General of DGFI, he launched a Media Monitoring Wing in DGFI and thus he gagged the voice of newspapers and online media portals. A broad number of reports on corruption in Bangladesh's government and private sectors had to be removed from the websites of different media outlets coming under explicit intimidation from Akbar Hossain. The country's freedom of press, human rights, rule of law and people's fundamental rights were severely trampled and guillotined by vicious officers like Akbar Hossain, Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan and Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar who also were directly associated with the making of blood-freezing Ayna Ghor (secret detention chambers).

Restoring law and order in Bangladesh and retaining integrity and accountability in military services will be a far cry if branded human rights violators and brazen extrajudicial killers like Tofayel Mustafa Sarwar and his accomplices are not subjected to prosecution right now.