The then top leaders of the banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) had ordered the assassination of Humayun Azad, a multidimensional writer and Dhaka University professor.
Upon orders from JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and second-in-command Siddiqul Islam “Bangla Bhai”, its military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny coordinated the attack. Under his leadership, four other JMB members brutally hacked Prof Azad near the TSC on the Dhaka University campus on February 27, 2004 when he was returning home from the book fair at Bangla Academy. They hacked him several times on the jaw, the lower part of the neck, and hands.
On August 12, 2004, Prof Azad was found dead in his apartment in Munich, Germany, where he had arrived a week earlier to conduct research on the nineteenth century German romantic poet Heinrich Heine.
According to the case dockets, he wrote a satire called “Pak Sar Jamin Shad Bad” (Blessed Be the Sacred Land) where he criticized the political ideologies of the pro-Pakistani Islamic extremists of Bangladesh.
After the book was published at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair of 2004, he started receiving threats, with Islamist parties parading the streets demanding his arrest.
Publisher Osman Gani told the court that the book was hugely successful and was publicised by the Daily Ittefaq as well.
“The extremists took out protests to ban the book. They denounced Humayun Azad as a Murtad (someone who abandons Islam, an apostate), and threatened to kill him. They also sent me death threats,” he added.
A week before the attack on him, then lawmaker of Jamaat-e-Islami Delawar Hossain Sayeedi said in Parliament that Prof Azad's political satire must be banned, and wanted to table a blasphemy law in Bangladesh for this kind of book. Sayedee was subsequently given life imprisonment for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
The militants collected the writeup and gave it to Shaikh Abdur Rahman. Their leaders read the book and ordered Sunny to kill the professor.
Rahman, Bangla Bhai and Sunny were executed in a murder case in 2007.
What happened that day?
On February 27, a JMB killing squad was waiting for the writer at the TSC area with machetes, knives, and explosives at around 8pm.
Nur Mohammad and Mizanur had knives and machetes in their bags. Nurullah was carrying the bombs. They were waiting at a shop opposite the book fair gate. At around 9:15pm, Sunny asked them to follow Prof Azad.
The Dhaka University professor left the book fair and started walking toward the TSC. When he reached the spot between Bangla Academy and TSC, the militants surrounded him.
Mizanur and Nur Mohammad took out knives from the bag and stabbed him in different parts of his body, including neck, head, mouth and hands. At that time, Anwarul and Nurullah created panic in the area by exploding bombs. Later, the attackers left the area by mingling with the common people visiting the book fair.
Shaikh Abdur Rahman was informed about this incident on his mobile phone at around 11 pm.
Before the attack, Bangla Bhai went to Dinajpur. From there he gave Anwarul the mobile phone number of Nur Mohammad. Later, Anwarul met Mizanur, Sunny and Nurullah in Dhaka. Sunny told them about the plan.
Mizanur in his confessional statement in court said that they had gathered information about Prof Azad’s movements first. They learnt that he went home every day from the book fair between 8pm and 8:30pm.
Meanwhile, the Daily Janata journalist Iftekhar Uddin said that he had taken a few photos of the injured writer at the scene.
“He was conscious at the time,” he said, and added that a police patrol car took him to the hospital.
“They are terrorists. Militants. They will turn Bangladesh into a Taliban state,” Iftekhar said, quoting Prof Azad.