Three placed on 5-day remand in KNF uniform fabric supply case 

A Chattogram court today (3 June) granted police a five-day remand for three individuals in a case filed over supplying fabric used to manufacture uniforms for the banned armed separatist group Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Chattogram Metropolitan Magistrate Ibrahim Khalil passed the order in the afternoon after a remand hearing on a petition filed by police from Bayezid Police Station.

Mofiz Uddin, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Prosecution) of Chattogram Metropolitan Police, confirmed the development order to The Business Standard.  

The suspects—Tarikul Islam, Touhidul Islam, and Atiqur Rahman—were arrested Monday (2 June) night during a police raid at a factory named Well Composite Knit Chemical Fabrics Dyeing, located in Kalurghat, he said.

Tarikul Islam is the younger brother of Mohammad Abdus Salam, a former MP from Chattogram-8 (Boalkhali-Chandgaon) and the current finance secretary of the Chattogram Metropolitan unit of the banned Awami League.

Following detention, the three accused were shown arrested under a case filed with the Bayezid Police Station under the Anti-Terrorism Act, concerning the illegal supply of materials for KNF uniforms.

Investigators initially sought a 10-day remand, though the court approved five days. A fourth arrestee, Jamalul Islam, was not included in the remand petition.

Following the raid, Chandgaon Police confirmed that the raid was conducted based on information that the factory was involved in supplying fabric for KNF uniforms.

According to sources, police investigations found that the accused, as officials of Well Composite, supplied the fabric to Ringvo Apparels, a garment factory in Bayezid, which was producing the KNF uniforms.

The case gained national attention following the seizure of 20,300 uniforms from Ringvo Apparels by the Chattogram Detective Branch on 18 May.

Three individuals—Shahedul Islam (the factory owner), Golam Azam, and Niaz Haider—were arrested

 Azam and Haider had allegedly brought the order in March, contracted at a value of Tk 20 million, on behalf of one Monghlasin Marma alias Mong.

Subsequently, police recovered 11,785 more uniforms from a warehouse in Noyarhat on 26 May, and nearly 15,000 additional uniforms from another factory under Pahartali Police Station on 28 May. Motiur Rahman, the owner of the latter factory, was arrested and placed on a five-day remand on Sunday.

According to the case statement, seen by TBS, filed by Sub-Inspector Iqbal Hossain of the Detective Branch, KNF is a banned armed separatist group operating in Rangamati, Khagrachhari, and Bandarban. Its members are reportedly involved in extortion, kidnapping, murder, and other armed crimes.

The case accuses the suspects of conspiring to undermine the sovereignty, security, and public order of Bangladesh by aiding a militant outfit and supplying materials used in their activities.