Investigators now looking for militant link

Investigators of the Shah AMS Kibria murder case are now looking into militant links in the killing.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Foni Bhushan Chowdhury recently said, "We are investigating the case further as we've got some information about militant links in the assassination."
Asma Kibria, wife of slain leader Kibria, however, said the investigators are focusing on militants to hide the masterminds of the attack. "They are incriminating militants in every case so that they don't have to do anything new," she said.
"If militants were involved in the killing of my husband, why didn't they confess to it earlier?" she added.
"Now we are checking whether militants had anything to do with the killing," the CID chief told The Daily Star adding that the charge sheet of the case will be submitted as soon as possible.
Intelligence officials said they are now cross-checking a list of possible suspects belonging to Islamist outfit Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (Huji). A number of detained Huji leaders in their statements had disclosed several names of Huji members, who they claimed to have been involved in the murder of Kibria and four others, the officials added.
The supplementary investigation of the Kibria assassination case was started by the government in March this year as the slain leader's family appealed to the chief adviser on January 19 this year to conduct a fresh and fair probe into the case.
On January 27, 2005, Shah AMS Kibria -- a noted economist, finance minister from 1996 to 2001 during the term of Awami League (AL) government, parliamentarian (Habiganj 3) and a veteran AL leader -- was killed along with four AL activists in a grenade attack on an AL rally at Boidder Bazar in Habiganj.
The High Court stayed the proceedings of the sensational case on May 14, 2006 following a petition by the complainant of the case, advocate Majid Khan, also a local AL leader.
Following the murder, advocate Majid Khan, on behalf of the Kibria family, filed two cases -- one for the murder and the other under explosives act.
In less than two months into the murder, on March 20, 2005, Munshi Atiqur Rahman, senior ASP of CID and the then investigation officer (IO) of the cases, submitted charge sheets of the two cases naming 10 local BNP leaders and workers as accused.
Both Kibria family and the complainant, advocate Majid Khan, rejected the charge sheets outright and demanded reinvestigation into the cases as both the charge sheets were identical to a government probe report and lacked any specific information about the masterminds of the murder or the source of the grenade used in the attack.
Kibria family maintained that the names of the masterminds could be revealed if the investigators are allowed to work freely and interrogate powerful individuals. They also demanded a neutral probe into the attack conducted by international investigators.
Despite the controversy over the investigation and objection raised by the complainant and the Kibria family, the trial of the cases got underway in may 2006 at a Sylhet court until being stayed by the High Court on May 14, 2006.
In January 2006, while talking to The Daily Star, senior ASP of CID Munshi Atiqur Rahman, the then investigation officer (IO) of the cases, brushed aside the necessity of further investigation of the case.
On March 7 this year, Munshi Atiqur Rahman contradicted himself when he pleaded to the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal seeking permission for further investigation of the case.
Kibria family raised objection against Atiq as the IO of the cases, saying fair probe is not possible by him since he had submitted a flawed charge sheet in the cases on March 20 in 2005.
CID ASP (Mymensingh) Rafiqul Islam took over the cases after Munshi Atiq went on LPR (leave preparatory to retirement) recently.
Eight of the 10 charge-sheeted accused in the cases are now behind bars. They are prime accused AKM Abdul Quayum, then vice-president of Habiganj BNP, Ayat Ali, Kajal Mia, Selim Ahmed, Tajul Islam, Shahed Ali, Jainal Abedin Jalal, Jamir Ali, Jainal Abedin Mumin and Muhibur Rahman. Two other accused -- Kajal Mia and Muhibur Rahman -- are on the run.
Of the accused, Tajul, Shahed, Jamir and Mumin gave confessional statements to a magistrate, but later appealed to a higher court seeking to retract their statements. They claimed that they had made the confessions under duress while in police custody.