Sayedee remanded in Humayun Azad case

Dhaka, July 19 (bdnews24.com) — A Dhaka magistrate has remanded detained Jamaat-e-Islami executive committee member Delwar Hossain Sayedee in police custody for three days in writer Humayun Azad attempted murder case.

Dhaka metropolitan magistrate SK Tofael Hasan on Monday permitted the police to grill Sayedee in custody.

Former MP Sayedee was produced before the court on Monday after a 16-day remand at a stretch in five cases.

Earlier on July 11, inspector of the Criminal Investigation Ddepartment of police Md Mostafizur Rahman, also the investigation officer of the case, pleaded for a seven-day remand.

The court on Monday held the hearing on the CID request but it also rejected Sayedee's pleas seeking bail and cancellation of remand in custody.

Shah Alam Talukder, additional public prosecutor of the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judges' Court and Md Saiful Islam Helal, public prosecutor of the Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrates' Court, were present as the state counsels at the court.

The state counsels said at the hearing 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 had delivered instigating speeches in the parliament, in several sermons and in on different other occasions across the country, they said. The counsels added that the Jamaat leader also had suggested, indicating Azad, formulation of a blasphemy law.

On Feb 27, 2004, a few days after Sayedee's hatred-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 have hands behind the attack. The pre-eminent writer later died in Germany's Munich 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 was excluded from the charge sheet and pleaded for further investigation.

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