The man arrested during a joint forces operation in Kushtia town has been confirmed as Subrata Bain, one of Bangladesh’s most notorious crime figures. Alongside him, authorities detained another top criminal, Molla Masud, and six others.
The operation was conducted early Tuesday morning between 5:00 and 8:00 AM in the Kalishankarpur area near Sonar Bangla Mosque. Subrata Bain was apprehended from a house in the neighborhood.
Subrata Bain gained notoriety in the 1990s as a dominant force in Dhaka’s criminal underworld, involved in tender manipulation, extortion, and a series of violent crimes.
He rose to prominence around Moghbazar’s Vishal Center, where he once worked at a restaurant named Changpai.
Over time, he became entrenched in organized crime, using Vishal Center as his base of operations. Locals even referred to him as “Vishaler Subrata” (Subrata of Vishal).
In December 2001, he was named on a government-issued list of 23 most-wanted criminals. A Red Notice remains in effect against him from Interpol, which lists his age as 55.
At the time, the Ministry of Home Affairs had also offered a reward for information leading to his capture.
Local residents and students living in the area provided accounts of the raid. According to them, the house in question—owned by Mir Mahiuddin, as per a municipal signboard—has rental spaces primarily occupied by university and college students.
The ground floor had recently been rented by a local resident, who introduced a guest around two weeks ago. The individual, reportedly seen only occasionally when he came out to eat, turned out to be the suspect.
Residents stated that at around 5:00 AM, five to six military vehicles, including a black microbus, arrived at the scene. Around 20 to 30 army personnel entered the house, asked for it to be opened, and conducted a room-to-room search.
Students living on the upper floors were confined to specific rooms while the operation continued. The officers assured the students there was no reason to fear, emphasizing the search was focused downstairs.
After about three hours, the suspect—described as a bearded man—was taken out in handcuffs with a towel wrapped around his head. Another individual, a young man, was also led away, bound with ropes. When one of the students asked who was being taken, an officer responded, “If we told you now, you’d be scared. Just watch the news later.”
