Bangladesh now says not sure where Hadi killers are

DHAKA: In a sensational somersault, and days after further straining already tense India-Bangladesh ties by claiming that youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi’s alleged killers had crossed into India, Dhaka on Saturday said it cannot confirm the whereabouts of the suspects.“We cannot say with 100% certainty where the suspects are, but they (authorities) remain in touch with India,” foreign affairs adviser Md Touhid Hossain said putting in question Dhaka Metropolitan Police additional commissioner (crime and operations) S N Md Nazrul Islam’s Dec 28 statement asserting “the two primary suspects of the murder — Faisal Karim Masud and Alamgir Sheikh — crossed into the Indian state of Meghalaya with the help of local associates”. “At least the home ministry has not yet confirmed to me that the individuals involved are staying at any specific location. We have received some indications from interrogation that they may have crossed the border. If we can identify a very specific location, then we can inform India that the suspects are in a particular place so that they can be arrested and handed over to us,” Hossain told reporters in Munshiganj. He said, “This is how communication with India is being maintained. Let’s see how much progress we can make in this regard.”Matters went against Dhaka on Wednesday after a video surfaced online in which, Masud denied the charge pinned on him by the Muhammad Yunus-led interim govt while also refuting its assertion that he slipped into India after committing the alleged crime and is holed up in the country. “Because of this false implication, I was forced to leave the country (Bangladesh) and come to Dubai. I came here with great difficulty, even though I held a valid five-year multiple-entry Dubai visa,” he had said.Nazrul Islam’s comments had not only put further pressure on New-Delhi-Dhaka relations — which worsened after large-scale anti-India protests and mob violence in Bangladesh following Islamic radical leader Osman’s death on Dec 18, six days after being shot in the head in Dhaka — but also sought to give new life to conspiracy theories that India had a role in the killing.The conspiracies had died down after Osman’s brother Omar, in a sensational twist, accused a section within Yunus-led govt of orchestrating the killing to derail the Feb 12 national election and cautioned of a Sheikh Hasina-like fate if Osman’s attackers are not tried quickly.Hossain also said there is no scope for rushing the trial in Osman’s murder case. “Trial is a matter where there is no room for haste,” he said, amid Osman’s party Inqilab Moncho’s 30-day ultimatum — which began a day after his death — to try his killers. “Decision has already been made to issue a chargesheet. The charge sheet is the initial step of the judicial process, which falls under the responsibility of the police, and the police will do it,” he said.