Saiful Alam Member, the second-in-command to Shimul Bhuiyan, a leader of the defunct extremist group Purba Bangla Communist Party, has been arrested by Detective Branch of police in connection with the murder of Jhenaidah-4 lawmaker Anwarul Azim Anar.

The arrested, identified as Saiful Alam, 48, is the son of Abul Kashem Mollah of village Dattagati in the ward No- 9 of Payra Union under Abhaynagar upazila in Jashore.

The arrest was made during a raid at Adarsha Matsya Hatchery in the Raypara Bablatala area of Jashore city at about 9:30pm on Tuesday.

During the arrest, police recovered a mobile phone with an Indian SIM card and materials for making explosives from Saiful’s possession.

According to the DB, Saiful had been hiding at a hatchery in the area for several days.

Subinspector Mofizul Islam of Jashore DB said that the arrested was a notorious associate of Shimul Bhuiyan.

‘Saiful is an accused listed in charge sheets for the murders of Uday Shankar, Rakib, and Subrata in Jashore, and is also a fugitive in one of these cases.’

When the investigation into lawmaker Anar’s murder began, Saiful went into hiding. Acting on a tip-off the police conducted the raid in the area and arrested him from the hatchery at Raypara Bablatala, he said.

The DB officer said that Saiful had been in the Satkhira and India border areas recently and maintained contact with Shimul Bhuiyan using an Indian mobile number.

The authorities are investigating his involvement in MP Anaar’s murder, he said, declining to reveal more details for the sake of the ongoing investigation.