Dhaka is working to bring back M Khairuzzaman, a retired army major, accused of participating in the 1975 Jail Killing, from Malaysia ‘as soon as possible’ following his arrest.
State Minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam made the comment on Thursday, hours after Malaysian Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin confirmed his arrest.
On November 3, 1975, the four national leaders, who played the momentous role in Bangladesh’s independence and state-building struggle after the Father of the National Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were brutally killed inside the safe custody of a jail. The brutal incident is known as the jail killing case.
Within the bounds of Dhaka Central Jail, in a continuation of the horrors unleashed on 15 August 1975, the four national leaders, Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, Captain M. Monsur Ali and AHM Quamaruzzaman, were murdered viciously with bullets and bayonets
On August 15, Bangabandhu was assassinated along with most of his family members. His two daughters – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana – survived as they were abroad during that time.
The Awami League government during its first tenure in 1996 arrested Khairuzzaman for the jail killing case. But the BNP-Jamaat government during its 2001 and 2006 tenure acquitted him.
Later, he was appointed high commissioner to Malaysia in 2007 by the then caretaker government.
After the Awami League-led government came to power in 2009, he was recalled to Dhaka. Assuming risks upon his return, Khairuzzaman obtained an UN refugee card in Kuala Lumpur and continued to stay there.
The state minister for foreign affairs hinted at interrogating him once again after his deportation from Malaysia.
He said the home and the law ministries would consider whether the jail killing case can be reopened.
Once he is brought back, the state minister said, the government would decide from which stage the case shall be reopened and the next course of action.
Earlier, the Malaysian Home Minister said the arrest was made according to procedures.
On the grounds of the arrest, the minister said it was due to "an offence committed and a request by his home country,” he was quoted as saying by the Malaysian newspaper The Star.
According to reports, Malaysian authorities had arrested the former high commissioner, who is said to have been living here for more than a decade.
