Judge to hear fresh arguments from February 27

FE Team | Published: February 11, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Putting on the backburner the pronouncement of its judgment, newly-designated First Additional District and Sessions Judge Monday re-fixed February 27 for starting further arguments from both sides in the long-pending Maj Gen Manzoor murder case, reports UNB.
Fixing the next date for summing up arguments, judge Khandaker Hasan Mahmud Firoz said, I'm not aware of the case ... I shall have to examine all the evidence, documents and records of the case afresh and hear both the prosecution and the defence."
With the induction, so far 22 judges have been changed for various reasons since the case was filed 19 years ago, during the then BNP rule. The trial began in 1999 while the Awami League government was in power.
The principal accused in the case, Jatiya Party chairman Gen (retd) HM Ershad MP, also Prime Minister's special envoy, now enjoying bail, and other accused Maj (retd) Kazi Emdadul Haque, Lt Col (retd) Mostafa Kamaluddin Bhuiyan were present before the court.
According to the case statement, Maj Gen Abul Manzoor, Bir Uttam, was killed in police custody after being captured at Chittagong Cantonment on June 1, 1981, a day after President Gen Ziaur Rahman was assassinated at the local Circuit House in an abortive coup.
Manzoor's brother Barrister Abul Mansur Ahmed filed the case with Panchlaish Police Station in Chittagong on February 28, 1995, 14 years after the killing.
Later, the case was transferred to Dhaka from Chittagong for disposal.