Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal promises to rid police of corruption

On his first day in office on being promoted to the Cabinet rank, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has promised to purge police of “corruption”.

“I will not claim that there is no corruption. Whatever little corruption there is will be weeded out,” he told reporters at his office in the Secretariat on Monday.

The home minister arrived at the home ministry at around 11:30am, and first went to his old office of state minister.

After spending some time there, he went to the minister’s office on the fourth floor.

There, he exchanged Eid greetings and pleasantries with ministry officials and employees.

He said the Eid celebrations went off peacefully this year. “Barring the Sirajganj mishap, everything was peaceful,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said the process was on to extradite Kamrul Islam, an accused in the killing of Sylhet boy Samiul Alam Rajan, from Saudi Arabia.

Kamrul, who is the prime accused in the murder, had fled to that country a day after beating Rajan to death on July 8. He was later arrested there.

“Certain procedures have to be followed for the extradition. The foreign ministry will do whatever is necessary. Kamarul will be brought back to face trial,” he said.

When his attention was drawn to allegations that police had helped Kamrul to flee, the minister said: “If someone had helped, he too would be brought to book. No one will be spared.”

About the filming of Rajan’s brutal killing, the minister said even the society had certain accountability.

“There were so many people around at that time. No one informed police. None even protested. They, too, will have to take some responsibility (for the incident).”