Mujib assassination: Bangladesh envoy to Malaysia says he was in India at that time

Kuala Lumpur, Jan.16 (ANI): Bangladesh's High Commissioner to Malaysia M. Khairuzzaman is following orders from Dhaka to return to headquarters, but is not certain whether he will be returning home soon in the wake of reports that he may be prosecuted for the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"I'm definitely winding up here, but I don't know what I'm going to do. The last time I was recalled in 1996 and went back, I was arrested," he said, adding that he was innocent as he was in India at the time of the incident, undergoing training on Mujib's written orders.

Khairuzzaman claimed the new regime was doing this for political mileage, adding that he was innocent.

"I was not even in the country when Mujib (Sheikh Mujibur) was assassinated. I was in India undergoing training, by an order signed by Mujib himself," the New Strait Times quoted him, as saying.

Sheikh Mujibur's daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who was sworn in as prime minister for the second time on January 6, is said to be demanding the prosecution of all those people who played a role in her father's assassination.

Her first term was between 1996 and 2001.

Khairuzzaman said when Sheikh Hasina was prime minister in 1996; he and other heads of Bangladeshi missions serving abroad were recalled as well.

"No one turned up... they all absconded except for me. I reported for duty in the headquarters within the six-day time frame given. A month later, I was arrested."

Khairuzzaman spent five-and-a-half years in jail, although for the first three-and-a-half years there was no charge against him.

Subsequently, he was issued a charge sheet for a jail killing case, involving the murder of four of Sheikh Mujibur's aides in November 1975. He was later granted bail while the jail-killing case was ongoing.

In October 2004, he was acquitted of the charge. The case was appealed, and six months ago, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal.

But two days ago, he received a recall order signed by Foreign Minister Dipu Moni asking him to return with immediate effect.

Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government Hasan Mahmud had told the New Straits Times on Wednesday that Khairuzzaman was being recalled to face trial in connection with Sheikh Mujibur's assassination. (ANI)