Sacked major Zia applies for withdrawal of cases

Syed Ziaul Haq, a sacked army major who had been convicted in a case filed over the 2015 murder of writer Avijit Roy, has recently applied to the law ministry to withdraw all the cases filed against him.

Zia, who was sentenced to death in the case, also applied to the home ministry to call off a Tk 20 lakh bounty declared on him by police headquarters when the Awami League was in power.

After the murder of Avijit, law enforcers said for years that Zia was the top leader of the al-Qaeda-inspired domestic militant outfit Ansar al Islam.

Zia's lawyer M Sarwar Hossain told The Daily Star that the applications were sent to the ministries on December 29.

"We have applied to the law adviser and the deputy commissioner of Dhaka to withdraw the false cases filed against my client," he said.

"We also applied to the inspector general of police, and the home ministry to withdraw the bounty on Zia."

Sarwar said, "It was by luck that he managed to flee from his residence during a raid or else he would have been killed by the police because the previous government was bent on continuing the drama of militancy as per the prescription of a neighbouring country."

Sarwar said he had yet to get a response from the ministries.

"We have so far come to know about seven cases. Of the cases, Zia was awarded the death penalty in three, and four others are under trial."

He added that Zia contacted him on social media to make the requests on his behalf. "I have no idea about Zia's whereabouts."

Contacted, Kazi Mohammad Saiful Islam, joint secretary (political-2) of home ministry's Public Security Division, said his office had not received the applications.

On February 16, 2021, an Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal sentenced Zia and four others to death.

Writer Avijit was hacked to death while he and his wife were walking out of Amar Ekushey Boi Mela in February 2015.