Thirty-one Bangladeshis were arrested on June 24 by New York City police at an allegedly illegal 24-hour gambling house in Brooklyn, New York.

Located on the second floor of an apartment building on a corner of MacDonald Avenue, a neighborhood with a large Bangladeshi population, the gambling house was raided at night by the police with the help of other federal agencies.

The operation was believed to be the largest number of arrested Bangladeshis in New York.

Many of the Bangladeshis arrested, however, said that the operation had no connection with the club. They were asked about their religious belief, they said, which advocates describe as a violation of human rights.

The police presence drew local residents’ curiosity and the information immediately spread to gamblers on New Kirk and Fulton Streets, also in Brooklyn, who were seen running away from the gambling spots.

Among the 31 arrested Bangladeshis, 27 of them were released with notice the following day, and the remaining four were accused to be the main organizers of the gambling house. The four were also released on June 27.

According to reports, the New York City police special squad arranged a sudden expedition to the MacDonald Avenue gambling house shortly before midnight on June 24.

Most of the gamblers were bewildered and scared of the unexpected influx of people and the police, who asked the gamblers to surrender and put their hands up, and they took pictures of them as well as the alleged illegal slot machines.

“Before they left, police had broken the slot machines,” a source said.

The large number of gamblers gathered there surprised the police, who ran out of metal handcuffs and were forced to use plastic ones, according to reports.

Some of the arrested are known in the community, and they tried to hide their faces from local residents when they were handcuffed and brought to a police van. Extra vans arrived and brought the arrested to 60th Princt.

Nikhil Babu, the owner of the building, said that the original tenant was an Albanian, until Rafiq, a Bangladeshi immigrant, took the lease. Rafiq, however, pays rent regularly.

“Now what’s happening inside the apartment isn’t my interest, that’s the law enforcement people’s job,” said Babu.

Local residents said that the apartment has been used for gambling for years, and that the clientele included a large number of Bangladeshis. Day by day the number of gamblers was increasing, a witness said, adding that some people became addicted to it.

Because of the gambling house, many believed that some husbands would frequently leave home for weekends at a time. There had been cases when wives and children would call 911 to seek help in finding their “missing” husbands and fathers.

Furthermore, some residents blamed the gambling house for those Bangladeshi residents who have been in the United States for many years but are unable have savings.

According to reports, the lucrative gambling house earned Rafiq up to $100,000 a night.

“This is a cursed place. It’s hard to count how many people had to go home with depression being bankrupt at this apartment,” said a witness on condition of anonymity.

Obayedullah, a Brooklyn resident, told Bangla Patrika that the operation would stop the gambling business on MacDonald’s Avenue apartment.

“It damaged Bangladeshi image. Beside that lots of Bangladeshi family were destroyed,” said Mohammad Mastafa.

For AK Ajad, another Brooklyn resident, “this sort of crime should not be pardoned.”

Meanwhile, on the same location, Millat, a Bangladeshi, was arrested for a different reason. He was drunk and kicked into the police van during the operation.

While talking to Bangla Patrika, the 31 arrested Bangladeshis said they were asked different questions, especially about their religion.

The questions varied from whether they pray to which mosque they used to go to; from who speaks against America to who is the Imam (leader). Many said they were surprised to think how their arrest could link such questions.

Partha Banarze, the chief of New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, said: “Whoever does crime is subject to punishment accordingly. There is no dispute about it. But New York police doesn’t bear the authority to ask about religious belief or personal or immigration status. Because through executive order 41, mayor is promised that the police cannot ask question about immigration status. If they do break this act, then sure, this is a violation to human right. We condemn this.”

After that incident in Brooklyn, Fulton and New Kirk gambling spots have had difficulty in carrying out their business since police has information about them. According to a source, if these gambling owners won’t give up anytime, the police may take action against them as well.