Fugitive ex-OC Moazzem still in Bangladesh, says home minister

The fugitive former chief of Feni’s Sonagazi Police Station, Moazzem Hossain, is still in Bangladesh, according to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan.

Responding to a question at an event on Wednesday, the home minister said, “It’s not that we are unable to arrest OC Moazzem Hossain. All the ways for him to get out of the country are blocked. He is still in the country. He will be arrested soon.”

Moazzem is accused of violating cyber security laws by releasing a video statement of madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi on Facebook before she was attacked in Feni.

The Bangladesh Cyber Tribunal issued an arrest warrant against the former inspector of police but the police in Feni and Rangpur have been deflecting responsibility for executing the order.

Transparency International Bangladesh raised questions about the police’s intentions over the arrest of the former OC.

“It’ll take some time to find a person who is absconding,” the home minister said on Sunday.

The following day, Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader expressed optimism over Moazzem’s arrest and said the authorities were ‘trying their best’.

Moazzem was in charge of the Sonagazi Police Station when Nusrat pressed charges of sexual harassment against her madrasa principal Siraj-ud-Daula in March, recording her statement on his mobile phone.

The video was later released on social media amid widespread protests over a deadly arson attack on Nusrat allegedly by the followers of Siraj, who had already landed in jail on the sexual abuse charges, in April.

A case was subsequently started against Moazzem in Dhaka under the Digital Security Act.

Moazzem filed a petition with the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the case before the Eid holidays. But the hearing is yet to take place while Moazzem has also not appeared before the court since.

Police had also launched a manhunt for Moazzem in the capital on Monday but to no avail.