Sayedee remanded again in Azad case

A Dhaka court on Sunday remanded detained Jamaat-e-Islami executive committee member Delwar Hossain Sayedee in police custody for two further days in relation to his alleged involvement in the attempted murder of writer Humayun Azad.

Dhaka metropolitan magistrate SK Tofael Hasan permitted the remand following a request from the investigation officer, inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department of police, Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman.

Former MP, Sayedee was produced before the court on Sunday after a six-day remand in three phases.

The remand petition said valuable information had been gathered from Sayedee during the previous remands. “Now it is very important to be more clear about the details of the incident, so he needs to be taken to meet Jama’tul Mujahideen chief Saidur Rahman and organising chief Bhagne Shahid.”

The court on Sunday ruled after rejecting Sayedee’s application for bail and for cancellation of remand in custody.

The case details state that Humayun Azad’s ‘Pak Sar Zamin Sar Baad’ was published in the Eid issue of the Bangla newspaper Daily Ittefaq on Nov 20, 2003.

After that, Sayedee is said to have delivered inciting speeches in the parliament, as well as in several sermons on other occasions across the country

It is also claimed that the Jamaat leader suggested that a law of blasphemy should be framed to deal with Azad’s books.

On Feb 27, 2004, a few days after Sayedee’s “hate-filled” speeches, some unidentified assailants tried to murder Azad while he was returning from the Ekushey Book Fair, and seriously injured him with sharp weapons in front of the Bangla Academy.

While undergoing treatment, Azad alleged to reporters that Sayedee might be behind the attack. The pre-eminent writer later died in Munich in Germany on Aug 11, 2004.

The investigating officer of the case revealed that Shaokh Abdur Rahman and other high-ranking leaders of banned fundamentalist outfit Jamaatul Mujahidin Bangladesh (JMB) were also involved in the incident.

On Nov 14, 2007 when the BNP-led government was in power, two charge sheets were submitted making JMB leaders Abdur Rahman, Ataur Rahman Sunny, Mizanur Rahman Minhaz and Anwar Alam alias Anwar Hossain Khoka the chief defendants.

Later on Oct 20 last year, Azad’s brother Manjur Kabir claimed the real culprits behind the murder were not included inthe charge sheet and pleaded for further investigation.

bdnews24

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