'Moeen asked Khaleda to leave country'

Ex-DGFI chief Sadiq Hasan Rumi tells court he went to the BNP chief's house under orders from the then Army chief Adds

Dhaka, Nov 18 (bdnews24.com)—Former chief of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) Sadiq Hasan Rumi on Sunday confessed at a Dhaka court that he had requested BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to leave the country during the state of emergency in 2007 following orders from the then Army chief Moeen U Ahmed.

Rumi said he had gone to Khaleda's house at Dhaka Cantonment's Shaheed Moinul Road on Apr 4, 2007, and asked her to leave the country.

The retired Major General said, "I went to that house following direct orders from the then Chief of Army Staff."

Rumi's made the confession when he was being cross-examined by the defence at Dhaka's Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 in the case filed over the grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on Aug 21, 2004. He was the Director General of DGFI at that time.

President Zillur Rahman's politician wife Ivy Rahman and 23 others were killed in the grisly attack on the rally in front of the Awami League headquarters. Several hundred people, including then the opposition leader Hasina and top leaders of her Awami League party, were injured. The attack is widely believed to have been carried out to assassinate Hasina.

Nearly three years later, the then army-backed caretaker government had taken over power after enforcing a state of emergency on Jan 11, 2007.

Attempts to take out the chiefs of the two main political parties – Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia – were made during that time, but those failed. The two leaders, however, were held captive instead.

As the defence asked whether Brigadier Fazlul Bari, then a DGFI official, was with General Moeen on the day the state of emergency was imposed, General Rumi on Sunday told the court, "Yes, he was."

Rumi made the deposition at tribunal judge Shahed Noor Uddin's special court situated in front of the Dhaka Central Jail in the capital's Nazim Uddin Road. The cross -examination will continue on Monday.

Witness deposition in the Aug 21 cases, one for the murders and another for the use of explosives, are still going on, and Rumi is giving his statement as the 14th witness.

There were allegations of diverting the course of investigation during the rule of BNP-Jamaat alliance. Following several changes of investigation officers, sixth Investigation Officer CID's Fazlul Kabir submitted the charge-sheet accusing 22 in June 2008 during the last caretaker government's tenure.

After the current Awami League government took office, the police conducted further investigation and added 30 more names to the list of accused, including Khaleda's elder son Tarique Rahman, a Vice-Chairman.

The cross-examination on Sunday was conducted by the lawyers defending Mufti Hannan and Sheikh Abdus Salam both of whom are accused in the grenade attack case.

Rumi said he had worked as the DGFI Director General from May 2002 to May 2007.

On Nov 4, he had also told the same court that they had had used the leaders of extremist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Bangladesh (HuJI) to capture perpetrators of the Aug 21 attack.

In his deposition that day, he had also said they had proposed the HuJI leaders to work as their source to arrest the responsible for the attack and they responded positively. They were also given cash incentive.

He told the court, "I had deputed my subordinates - Brig Gen Amin Chowdhury and Lt Col Saiful Islam to maintain contact with the HuJI leaders after the grenade attack in 2004. These two officials contacted the HuJI leaders including Maulana Sheikh Farid, Maulana Sheikh Abdus Salam and had meetings with them for three or four times."

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