Home minister says agencies on Zia trails, hopes for breakthrough soon

Security agencies are still in hot pursuit of dismissed armyman Syed Md Ziaul haque, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.

Kamal was interacting with the newly appointed office bearers of the executive body of Crime Reporters Association Bangladesh (CRAB) at the ministry office on Tuesday.

He said that most of Zia's followers have been caught or killed and Zia too would be in the security net soon.

Haque was dismissed from army after a 2012 army report named him as the leader of a group of religious fanatic group within the army that attempted a coup to topple the Hasina government.

Having been dismissed from the army, Haque allegedly joined the terror group Ansar-al Islam. 

A Tk 2 million bounty was announced on his head after the Gulshan carnage last year, after he was named as one of the 'brains 'behind the incident.

Although some his accomplices, including  Canadian-Bangladeshi Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury have since died in 'gunbattles' with RAB-Police, Zia has managed to remain out of the security agencies' reach.

The home minister dismissed that a lack of intelligence efficeincy was responsible for Zia still being free.

He said that the nature and mode of crime is changing and that demands a change in the detective methods.

He added that steps are being taken to send personnel abroad for the latest training in intelligence gathering methods and detective training. help from foreign detective agencies are also being atken, he said.