Rezaul Gabir

Rezaul Gabir, played by Tanveer Ghani, arrives in Albert Square in December 1986. He is Naima Jeffery's cousin and had been sent by Naima's family to help her run her grocery store, First Til Last. Naima is extremely angry about Rezaul's arrival, but her family are adamant that he has to stay, so she begrudgingly puts up with his presence. Rezaul is rather bossy, pretentious, chauvinistic and arrogant, and instantly tries to take over the running of the shop. On his first night, Rezaul puts forth a scheme to increase the shop's profits and asks for a month's trial. Naima agrees to the trial. Rezaul then proceeds to mark up the shop's items to unreasonably high prices as well as steal money from the till. Naima is furious and to make matters worse it soon becomes clear that Rezaul has amorous intentions towards her. Naima isn't remotely interested in Rezaul so she sets about finding herself a new boyfriend to put him off. She starts dating the Square's new doctor, Jaggat Singh. Rezaul, a Muslim, becomes very envious when he sees them together and tells Naima that she is making a fool of herself, smiling and fawning over a Sikh.

This culminates in Rezaul trying to pick a fight with Dr. Singh in The Queen Victoria one night, almost getting himself barred in the process. In April 1987, Naima and Rezaul get into a shouting match when he tells her that her family have decided she has to marry him. He is furious when she flatly refuses, but later admits that he is actually relieved and tells her he doesn't want to marry her either. Naima's defiance displeases her family and they subsequently break off all ties with her. Rezaul, it seems, is rather impressed with Naima and tells her that she is no ordinary Bengali girl as he'd first thought. Things between Naima and Rezaul improve after this, and when Naima's family eventually send over another of her cousins for her to marry, he goes out of his way to help their blossoming romance. After Naima leaves England to live in Bangladesh, Rezaul runs The First Til Last in her place for a while. Whilst managing the shop, he catches Charlie Cotton shoplifting and makes a citizen's arrest. Charlie then has to appear at the Magistrates' Court and is given a hefty fine. When Naima's family sell the shop to Ashraf Karim at the end of the year, Rezaul leaves Walford to resume his studies. His last appearance is in January 1988.