Ex-Bangladeshi diplomat likely to be deported after 12 years here

PUTRAJAYA: After living as a refugee here for more than 12 years, former Bangladesh High Commissioner to Malaysia M. Khairuzzaman (pic) has been arrested following a request from his country.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said the arrest was done according to the law after the authorities received a request and found that it was valid.

“As Home Minister, I am aware of the arrest. But everything was done according to law and procedure,” he said when asked to confirm the former diplomat’s arrest in Kuala Lumpur.

Hamzah, however, was not sure when Khairuzzaman will be deported.

The Bangladesh Star, meanwhile, quoted the country’s foreign affairs minister Shahriar Alam as saying Khairuzzaman is now at a deportation centre in Malaysia.

“As far as I understand, there is an opportunity to interrogate him again and investigate the case against him,” the minister said.

Khairuzzaman, a retired army major, was accused in the 1975 assassination of the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He was later acquitted and appointed High Commissioner to Malaysia in 2007.

He was reportedly also linked to “jail killings” where Bangaldeshi national leaders Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Mansur Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman were murdered in Dhaka Central Jail on Nov 3, 1975.

After the Awani League-led government came to power in 2009, he was recalled to Dhaka.

Fearing arrest upon his return, Khairuzzaman obtained a UN Refugee card in Kuala Lumpur and continued staying here.

In an interview with The Star in 2009, Khairuzzaman had described his implication in the murder of Mujibur a “complete fabrication” and accused the then newly-elected Awami League government of trying to stir public sentiment.

The Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina Wazed is Mujibur’s daughter.

“I was arrested before and spent years in jail, but there was not an iota of evidence against me. It was established that I was away in India doing military training at the time of Sheikh Mujibur’s murder and I was released.

“Now, the government wants me to face trial. What is the motive? It is definitely political,” he had said.

Mujibur, the founder president of Bangladesh, was killed together with all but two of his family members on Aug 15, 1975 in a military putsch when some young army officers launched an attack on his residence.

The Bangladesh Star also reported that Khairuzzaman’s lawyer has served a legal notice to the Malaysian authorities demanding his immediate release.

The lawyer said if Khairuzzaman was not released in 24 hours, a habeas corpus application would be filed in court.