Khalid Mehmud

Pakistani citizen Khalid Mehmud, a suspected ISI agent who was arrested in Gazipur on Sunday, will be tried under Bangladesh law, police say.

Arrested under section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Mehmud was produced before the Gazipur Judicial Magistrate Court yesterday.

Law enforcers sought a 10-day remand for him in a case filed with Joydebpur Police Station for illegally staying in the country and for creating an unstable situation in the garment factory where he worked, said Khandaker Rezaul Hossain Reza, officer-in-charge of Joydebpur Police Station.

However, hearing of the petition was not held yesterday.

"We will produce him before the court tomorrow [today] again," Amir Hossain, officer-in-charge of the district's detective police, told The Daily Star.

Gazipur Superintendent of Police Harun-ur-Rashid claimed that Mehmud, 50, confessed to them of being a member of Pakistan's spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

At a press briefing at his office, SP Harun said Mehmud, who is now in Gazipur District Jail, entered Bangladesh on November 7, 2014, with an e-visa (for employment/service) with three months validity.

"On November 19, 2014, he took a job at Sreepur's Unilance Textile as an electric engineer. On February 15 this year, he extended his visa which expired on May 6," said the SP.

Since then he had been staying in the country illegally, he added.

OC Amir Hossain said Mehmud worked in Pakistan Air Force from where he retired on 2001. He later joined the ISI.

The OC said Mehmud had a good rapport with Mohammad Mazhar Khan, a Pakistan High Commission official who was withdrawn from Bangladesh in February for his involvement in terror financing and currency forgery racket.