The body of Harris Chowdhury, a former BNP leader and political secretary to former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia; is going to be exhumed for DNA test to ensure his identity.
Magistrate has been designated to oversee the digging up process, which will occur in consultation with the magistrate. SM Rasel Islam Noor, an executive magistrate in Dhaka; has been designated in this regard.
Rafe Mohammad, senior assistant commissioner and executive magistrate of Dhaka district, confirmed the matter. He said that as per the directive of the High Court, they appointed an executive magistrate to exhume the body of Harris Chowdhury in consultation with law enforcers and others.
The court has directed the authorities concerned of the government to exhume the body buried under the name ‘Mahmudur Rahman’ in a Savar graveyard three years ago and conduct a DNA test to determine if it belongs to BNP leader Harris Chowdhury.
Earlier on September 5, the High Court issued an order to exhume the body for DNA test to ensure his identity.
The HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Muhammad Mahbub Ul Islam issued the order after holding hearing on a writ petition filed by Harris Chowdhury's daughter Barrister Samira Tanzina Chowdhury.
The HC issued a rule asking why the authorities concerned should not be directed to exhume the body buried at the Jamia Khatamun Nabiyyin Madrasa Graveyard in Savar for DNA testing to confirm the identity, why a death certificate should not be issued in Harris Chowdhury's name if the DNA test is positive, why the Interpol Red Notice against him should not be withdrawn, and why he should not be buried with due honor as a freedom fighter in his home district according to his last wishes.
In 2021, media reports stated that on September 3 of that year, Abul Harris Chowdhury was buried under the name “Mahmudur Rahman” in a graveyard in the Jalalabad area of Savar, Dhaka.
Harris Chowdhury's daughter said that the recently deposed authoritarian government and its intelligence agencies created a drama to question her father's death. The media repeatedly said that there is still ambiguity surrounding Harris Chowdhury's death.
"It is heartbreaking and painful as a child to have doubts about my father's death. People still ask if he is really dead, and we are being harassed because of it. So, we turned to the court to put an end to this,” she said.
In 2007, after a state emergency was declared in Bangladesh, Harris Chowdhury, along with his wife, fled to his village in Sylhet to avoid arrest by joint forces conducting raids on BNP leaders.
He was accused in the August 21 grenade attack case, leading to an Interpol Red Notice in 2015 and a life imprisonment sentence in 2018.
He was also sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption in the Zia Charitable Trust case and implicated in the Shah AMS Kibria murder case, which is still under trial.
