Condemned fugitive in Sheikh Hasina murder plot arrested in Dhaka
BI Report || BusinessInsider
Photo: Collected
The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has claimed to have arrested a death-row convict fugitive in connection with conspiring to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Gopalganj’s Kotalipara in 2000.
The arrestee Md Azizul Haque Rana, 44, who is one of 14 militants convicted in connection with the case, was arrested at Khilkhet area of Dhaka on Tuesday night.
“Azizul has been on the run for the last 22 years. He has been working as a rubber-stamp maker in Khilkhet area concealing his real name since his hideout,” CTTC Chief Md Asaduzzaman said at a press conference in Dhaka on Wednesday.
The arrestee was also a close associate of Mufti Hannan, chief of the banned militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), Asaduzzaman said.
“A court had sentenced 14 militants to death in the case. Sedition charges were also brought against the convicts. The Dhaka Speedy Tribunal-1 judge ordered the execution of the convicts in firing squads in March last year,” Asaduzzaman said.
“Four other convicts in the case, Lokman, Yusuf alias Moshab Morol, Sheikh Md Enamul Haque and Moshab Hasan alias Rashu, are still on the run. All of the convicts are members of HuJI,” he said.
Azizul is an expert in bomb making and he maintained close relation with the militant group even while he was on the run, according to the CTTC chief.
In 2000, police recovered two bombs weighting 76-kilogram beneath a school ground at Kotalipara where Sheikh Hasina, on her first term as the Prime Minister, was scheduled to address an election rally.
The bombs were detected when the rally reached the stage on Sheikh Lutfur Rahman College ground in Kotalipara, the parliamentary electoral seat of the Awami League chief.
Sheikh Hasina was expected to address the rally two days later.
After detecting the huge bombs, three cases—an attempted murder, a conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister and sedition and the use of explosives—were filed.
