Shafiqul Alam, Bureau Chief at AFP News Agency
As a regular traveller to my village in Magura, I would drive at least 60 kilometres through the central district of Faridpur. Even a few of years ago the road from the Padma river station of Goalundo to Faridpur would be lined up with king size billboards of Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, hailing the architect of the Faridpur’s rise from a rural backwater to a thriving district. All the posters would contain his face, sometimes dwarfing other AL stalwarts. As I stopped to meet some relatives

in Faridpur city, they would tell me stories of Faridpur’s transformationthe ten-twenty fold hike in land prices, swanky rural roads and new schools and buildings.
And then in 2020, the Manabjamin and the Prothom Alo did stories on the two powerful brothers belonging to AL, who were allegedly blessed by Hossain’s powerful brother. And suddenly, the billboards started disappearing. Several months ago when the last time I visited Faridpur, I did not spot a single poster or billboard of Mr.

Hossain, the powerful ex-minister. Yesterday Hossain’s brother was arrested, with newspapers saying he faced Tk 2,535.11 crore ( about 300 million dollar) money laundering case. And now there are “Sweet Distribution Ananda Misil” at Faridpur. The cycle is now complete.