Former Bangladesh Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun and Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman are among three persons who continue to be in the protective custody of the army, Northeast News has reliably learnt.
The third person who remains in the Bangladesh army’s custody is said to be former DMP Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operations) Mohammad Harun-ur Rashid who disappeared from public view and went into hiding immediately after August 5 when hundreds of thousands of students took to march to Ganabhaban, the prime minister’s official residence.
Rashid was removed as DMP’s Detective Branch Additional Commissioner towards the end of July when a video that went viral revealed him showing his private parts to an unidentified woman.
The erstwhile government of Sheikh Hasina, instead of dismissing him from service, promptly transferred him as Additional Commissioner (Crime and Operations).
Even as Rashid disappeared – some police and bureaucratic sources revealed he took refuge in a Western country’s embassy in Dhaka – subsequent reports indicated that he was supposedly grievously injured and was admitted to the army’s Mirpur Road-located Combined Military Hospital (CMH).
As public curiosity deepened over the mysterious disappearance of Rashid and a host of senior Awami League leaders, the Bangladesh army’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) wing issued a statement on August 18, saying that only three persons, along four of their family members, were in their protective custody.
“In the backdrop of the regime change on August 5, 24 political leaders, five judges, 19 public officials, 28 police officers, 487 policemen from different sections and a number of employees from different public universities, besides 63 wives and children (of these individuals) were given shelter at various army establishments,” the ISPR statement said.
Curiously enough, the army authorities allowed 615 of these politicians and public officials to leave “voluntarily” leave the army establishments when the situation, arising out of the violent conditions that prevailed in the country for over three weeks, began to improve in Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh.
While four persons, including Hasina’s former industry and investment advisor Salman F Rahman and ex-law minister Anisul Huq, were handed over to law enforcement authorities, the ISPR statement said.
Nearly three weeks after the Hasina government was toppled following a countrywide students’ and people’s movement, there is still no trace of senior Awami League leaders such party General Secretary Obaidul Quader, former Minister of State for Information Mohammad Ali Arafat, Joint General Secretary Kabir Nanak and several others.
