Arrestee confesses killing

One of the four accused in Saudi embassy official Khalaf Al Ali murder case admitted his involvement in the killing before a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate yesterday.
Al Amin, one of the four accused in the case, gave his confessional statement to Metropolitan Magistrate Shahriar Mahmud Adnan at his chamber for over two and a half hours.
Khalaf, 45, an official with the consular section of the Saudi embassy in Dhaka, was shot dead near his house in the diplomatic enclave in the wee hours of March 6.
While giving description of the murder, Al Amin said he along with four others -- Saiful Islam Mamun, 20, Rafiqul Islam Khokon, 22, Akbar Ali Lalu, 25, and Md Selim -- were present at the scene of occurrence. Saiful shot Khalaf, he said.
Before shooting him, the muggers locked into a brawl with Khalaf when the gang demanded some dollars from him and he refused to do so, the accused told the magistrate.
Al Amin said he was sitting inside a microbus by which they fled later.
After recording the statement, the court sent Al Amin to jail.
The three other arrestees -- Saiful, Rafiqul, Akbar -- are now on an eight-day remand since Tuesday.
Detectives recently arrested the four while Selim is on the run.
The case was included as a sensational one under the home ministry's monitoring cell on July 1.
Four months and 19 days into the killing of Khalaf, detectives on July 25 at a press briefing claimed that the incident was of simply mugging.
“The embassy officer was hit by a bullet from a .22 bore revolver of a mugger during a brawl with the gang who stopped him near his Gulshan house on March 6,” Deputy Commissioner of DB (north) Mollah Nazrul Islam had told reporters.
CHARGE SHEET SOON
Meanwhile, Home Minister Shahara Khatun yesterday said charge sheet in the case would be submitted soon.
“The accused will be given exemplary punishment,” said the minister after a meeting with Saudi ambassador Abdullah Bin Naser Al-Busairi at her office, reports ATN Bangla.
The Saudi ambassador expressed his government's gratefulness for revealing the mystery of the case.
“They killed a Saudi diplomat. We hope the killers will get their deserved punishment for the crime,” Al-Busairi said while expressing his government's official reaction.
Talking about the relationship between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, the envoy said, “The killing did not hamper our relationship in any sense. We had full confidence in Bangladesh government since the killing.”