Police suspects Sayeedi's links to attempt on Humayun Azad
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police Saturday said that they suspected Jamaat-e-Islami Leader Moulana Delwar Hossain Sayeedi's links to 2004 attack on writer Prof Humayun Azad, who subsequently died while in Germany, reports BSS.
"According to our evidence the (outlawed) Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) have carried out the attack on Dr Humayun Azad, but we have reasons to believe that they were instigated by Sayeedi," a senior police official told the news agency.
He said Sayeedi, who was the deputy leader of the Jamaat's parliamentary group at that time, could be accused of the assassination plot as the case was now being reinvestigated under a court order.
The official said Sayeedi at different rallies had been spreading "venom" against Azad calling him an anti-Islamic person and demanding his trial for "blasphemous" statements. Suspected JMB operatives attacked on Azad near Bangla Academy on February 27, 2004 as he was returning home from the Ekushey Book Fair.
But regaining his sense after long 24 days of the attack, Azad at a press briefing on March 23 blamed two rightwing newspapers and Sayeedi for the attack on him.
"The way the daily Inqilab and Dainik Sangram wrote against me and what Delwar Hossain Sayeedi spoke about me in parliament indicated their links to the attack," he added.
The case was shelved for years while a Dhaka metropolitan Session Judge's Court recently ordered its reinvestigation in line with a prayer by Azad's brother Manjurul Kabir who alleged that the previous investigation process tried to hide the real culprits and patrons of the assassins.
"According to our evidence the (outlawed) Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh (JMB) have carried out the attack on Dr Humayun Azad, but we have reasons to believe that they were instigated by Sayeedi," a senior police official told the news agency.
He said Sayeedi, who was the deputy leader of the Jamaat's parliamentary group at that time, could be accused of the assassination plot as the case was now being reinvestigated under a court order.
The official said Sayeedi at different rallies had been spreading "venom" against Azad calling him an anti-Islamic person and demanding his trial for "blasphemous" statements. Suspected JMB operatives attacked on Azad near Bangla Academy on February 27, 2004 as he was returning home from the Ekushey Book Fair.
But regaining his sense after long 24 days of the attack, Azad at a press briefing on March 23 blamed two rightwing newspapers and Sayeedi for the attack on him.
"The way the daily Inqilab and Dainik Sangram wrote against me and what Delwar Hossain Sayeedi spoke about me in parliament indicated their links to the attack," he added.
The case was shelved for years while a Dhaka metropolitan Session Judge's Court recently ordered its reinvestigation in line with a prayer by Azad's brother Manjurul Kabir who alleged that the previous investigation process tried to hide the real culprits and patrons of the assassins.