Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday claimed the killings of two foreigners had been planned at the same source – anti-ruling party politicians to be specific – and the masterminds would be brought to light soon.
The minister made the remark to reporters at the Secretariat yesterday – a month after Italian national Cesare Tavella was murdered in Dhaka and two days after police arrested four people in connection with the murder.
After the arrests, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) yesterday said that a “big brother” had paid the criminals to murder Tavella.
Claiming that a number of anti-ruling party politicians are behind the murders, the minister said they are now abroad and will be brought back with Interpol’s help.
He also assured that no “Joj Mia drama” will be staged in connection with these murders.
After the August 21, 2004 deadly grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Dhaka, the then BNP-Jamaat government tried to save the main culprits by making a person named Joj Mia falsely confess his involvement with the bombing.
Minister Kamal yesterday said: “It [the killings of foreigners] was part of national and international conspiracies against the country. The plotters wanted to defame the country to the world and establish that Bangladesh is a terrorist country.”
According to a source from among the investigators of the Tavella murder, MA Kaiyum, joint convener of BNP’s Dhaka city unit, paid the killers through his younger brother. Kaiyum is now in London.
According to another source involved with the investigation of Hoshi Kunio murder in Rangpur, the Japanese national was murdered upon instructions from Habib Un Nabi Sohel, member secretary of Dhaka city unit BNP.
The source also claimed that Sohel has been on the run since October 3, the day Hoshi was murdered, and is now staying abroad.
Sources in the BNP said that Sohel has been underground for months in order to avoid arrest in the political violence cases. The source, however, could not confirm whether he is out of the country or not.
Local police in Rangpur detained Sohel’s brother Biplop the very day Hoshi had been murdered. Yesterday, the investigation officer of the Hoshi murder case had been changed although the reason could not be known immediately.
Rangpur police’s Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Jainal Abedin yesterday said that they had made much progress in the murder investigation but refused to say if they had identified the killers or not.
Asked why the investigation officer had been changed, the ADC said there were instructions from the high command.
Minister Kamal yesterday also said that the authorities will publish the names of the masterminds after gathering strong evidence.
Asked which political parties the masterminds belong to, he said: “Everybody knows them... who burned people alive during their 92-day agitation earlier this year.”