On the run for nine years

A death-row convict of Ekushey Padak winning photojournalist Aftab Ahmed murder case has been arrested in Dinajpur nine years after he went into hiding after obtaining bail.

The convict, Raju Munsi, 25, had been hiding in Mymensingh, Jamalpur and Dinajpur under different guises and he never even contacted his family to avoid arrest in nine years. He worked as an assistant of a mason.

The members of Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) of police arrested Raju from Shalgram bordering area in Phulbari upazila on Wednesday, said ATU Superintendent of Police (Intelligence) MM Hasanul Zahid at a press conference yesterday.

The 79-year-old photojournalist was killed during a robbery at his home on Wapda Road in West Rampura, Dhaka on December 24 in 2013. Police recovered the body the next day.

Masterminded by Aftab's car driver Humayun Kabir, Raju and several others entered Aftab's house, saying that they would rent the house and tried to loot money and gold ornaments. As the journalist tried to stop them and kept shouting, they strangulated Aftab to death.

In March 2017, a Dhaka court sentenced five people to death in the case.

Aftab had a long and illustrious career, during which he served as chief photographer for the Bangla newspaper, the Daily Ittefaq. He received the Ekushey Padak in 2006.

The five death row convicts are Aftab's driver Md Humayun Kabir Mollah, Billol Hossain Kislu, Habib Hawladar, Raju Munshi and Md Rasel. Another suspect, Md Shabuj Khan, has been jailed for seven years.

Last year, the High Court upheld the lower court order sentencing five people to death and another to seven years' imprisonment.

                        Police arrested Raju, son of Nurul Islam Munshi from Patuakhali, in 2013 and was in jail for a year. He went into hiding after securing bail from a court.