Submit probe report by March 8

A Dhaka court yesterday again directed the additional inspector general of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit by March 8 a probe report in the case of attempt to murder Prof Humayun Azad.
First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Ali Hossain passed the order as the prosecution submitted a petition seeking extension of time to probe the case.
On October 20, the same court had ordered a further investigation into the attack on Prof Azad and directed the CID to submit the probe report by December 20. But the investigation officer failed to complete the probe.
A gang of attackers stabbed eminent writer Prof Humayun Azad with machetes in front of the Bangla Academy in the city on February 27 in 2004, leaving him critically injured. After his recovery, Prof Azad went to Germany where he died on the night of August 11, 2004.
Monjur Kabir, brother of Prof Azad, filed a petition on October 6 this year seeking further investigation into the attack on Prof Azad.
In the petition, Kabir mentioned that the previous investigation officers could not find out the masterminds behind the attack, although they had indicted several persons in this connection.
He added that Prof Azad, during his treatment at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in March 2004, had said that Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee criticised his book entitled 'Pak Saar Zamin Saad Baad'.
Prof Azad had also asked the investigators to probe the activities of those who criticised him for writing the book, Kabir said.
The investigators, however, could not go ahead with the probe.
CID Inspector Kazi Abdul Malek, also the IO of the case, submitted a charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka on November 15, 2007 against five JMB men, including executed militant leaders Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his brother Ataur Rahman Sunny.
However, the names of Abdur Rahman and Sunny were dropped from the charge sheet as they had already been sentenced to death for killing two judges in Jhalakathi.
Three other accused are Mizanur Rahman Minhaz, Nur Mohammad Shamim and Nur Alam alias Anwar Hossain Shahid.