POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Dec 23, 2021 : Where are Major Syed Ziaul Haque and Akram Hossain, who were fired from the Army on charge of killing blogger and writer Abhijit Roy, now? A kind of mystery has been created about their whereabouts.
Discussions are going on as to whether they are staying in the country or went abroad.
They have recently been the matter of talks after the USA government announced an award worth 5 million Dollars on information leading to the capture of the two militant leaders. The country’s Rewards for Justice program has made it clear that Zia-Akram are staying in Bangladesh.
On the other hand, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that the two accused have fled to another country. Law enforcement personnel are trying to catch them.
Confusion has been created over two types of information about the location of the two accused.
Speaking at a function in Manikganj district on Tuesday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal claimed that Major Zia and Akram had fled abroad. “As far as we know, convicted Zia and Akram are not in the country,” he said. They went abroad. The verdict will be executed by arresting them as soon as possible. We are continuing our efforts in this regard.
Meanwhile, the United States believes that the killers of blogger and writer Abhijit Roy are in Bangladesh. An update published on the Foreign Office’s Rewards for Justice website states that those responsible for the killing of Abhijit Roy are staying in Bangladesh.
Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police Joint Commissioner Mahbub Alam told the media, “We are continuing our efforts to nab Major Syed Zia and Akram Hossain, two convicted fugitives. Law enforcement personnel are working to identify them according to our existing law”.
Haider Ali Khan, DIG (Operations) at the police headquarters, said members of law enforcement agency are working to nab the convicted fugitives. We do not know in what context the United States announced the award. Moreover, we have not received any official letter in this regard.
Abhijit, a US citizen, came to Bangladesh in February 2015 along with his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya to attend the Ekushey Book Fair in the face of threats from militants. On the night of February 26 of that year, on the way back from the book fair, the militants hacked Abhijit to death near TSC of Dhaka University. Abhijit’s wife Bonya was also seriously injured during the attack.
After the incident, the name of Major Zia, who was fired from the army, came up in the investigation of the detective police. After that, the detectives conducted a continuous operation from February 2015 to 2016 to catch him. Among these, 3 big operations were conducted in Badda, Tongi and Keraniganj of Dhaka. Each time Zia managed to escape. Besides, his location was identified in Chittagong once.
Zia, who was fired from the Amy, joined the militant outfit Ansar al-Islam, police said. After the Gulshan attack in 2016, the Bangladesh government announced a reward of Tk. 20 lakh for Zia’s capture. Zia was not found even though some of the top leaders of the militants including Tamim Chowdhury were killed in the RAB-police operation.
