Police say they have now confirmed that Faisal Karim, the prime suspect in the killing of Inqilab Moncho leader Sharif Osman Hadi, is no longer in the country.
At a media briefing on Sunday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner SN Md Nazrul Islam said investigators had established that Faisal fled to India’s Meghalaya state. He added that police in Meghalaya have arrested two people suspected of helping Faisal escape after the shooting.
Police had earlier said they suspected Faisal had left Bangladesh, but his whereabouts could not be confirmed at the time.
Eleven people have so far been arrested in connection with the case, including Faisal’s parents, his wife, his brother-in-law and a woman described as his girlfriend. Six of the arrestees have given confessional statements, according to police
Investigators highlighted the recovery of two foreign-made pistols, 52 rounds of ammunition, a motorcycle, a fake number plate and cheques worth Tk 21.8 billion linked to 53 bank accounts.
However, the motive for the killing remains unclear, as the main suspect has yet to be arrested, they added.
The case was filed on Dec 14 by Inqilab Moncho Member Secretary Abdullah Al Jaber over an attempted murder following a shooting attack on Hadi two days earlier. It was later converted into a murder case after Hadi died.
Hadi, who rose to prominence during last year’s July Uprising and the movement calling for a ban on the Awami League, was shot in the head on Dec 12 while campaigning in Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area, having announced plans to contest the upcoming general election as an independent candidate from the Dhaka-8 constituency.
According to police, Hadi was travelling in a battery-powered rickshaw when he was shot by an assailant riding pillion on a motorcycle. He was later flown to Singapore for treatment, where he died six days later on Dec 18.
Additional Commissioner Nazrul said coordination through informal channels with Meghalaya police led to the arrest of two people accused of assisting Faisal after he crossed the border.
According to investigators, Faisal and his associate Alamgir left Dhaka immediately after the attack, travelling by CNG autorickshaw to Aminbazar. From there, they went on to Kalampur in Manikganj before continuing by car to Haluaghat in Mymensingh.
Nazrul said that before reaching Haluaghat, two people identified as Philip and Sanjay were waiting for them at the Moon Filling Station. Philip then helped Faisal cross the border into India’s Meghalaya and handed him over to a man known as Putti. Putti later took them to a taxi driver, Sami, who drove them to the city of Tura in Meghalaya.
Based on information obtained through informal channels and coordination with the Meghalaya police, both Putti and Sami have since been arrested, said Nazrul.
He added that the killing had been premeditated, which allowed the prime suspect and his associate to cross the border within a very short time, before investigators were able to identify them.
Earlier, at a joint press conference on Dec 21, law-enforcing agencies, including the Police Headquarters, the DMP’s Detective Branch, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh, said whether Faisal was in the country or abroad had yet to be confirmed, adding that “maximum efforts” were under way to arrest him.
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