New Delhi: Bangladesh claims that two of three persons involved in the shooting of a politician in Dhaka on Friday, have fled to India, though its own police maintain that they are still in the country.
The assailants, on motorcycles, shot at anti-India radical leader Sharif Osman Hadi, the spokesperson of the Anti-Sheikh Hasina Inqilab Manch on a Dhaka street. Hadi was shot in the head and has been flown to Singapore in an air ambulance for treatment.
The incident came after the interim government under Muhammad Yunus announced elections in the country. Hadi was an independent candidate from the Dhaka-8 constituency.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) had said on Sunday that “there is no verified evidence that the attackers… have crossed into India”, Dhaka-based TV channel, Jagonews24 reported.
DMP deputy commissioner Muhammad Talebur Rahman said that multiple teams, including the Detective Branch, are tracking several leads. “At this stage, we have no confirmed information indicating any suspect has left the country,” he was quoted as saying by Jagonews24.
Then why is it that Dhaka has been urging India to arrest and hand over the shooters?
This is due to media reports that appeared in Bangladesh. On Sunday, Dhaka summoned Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, and urged New Delhi to arrest and hand over the attackers, as per English daily, the Daily Sun.
During the meeting, Bangladesh is also said to have conveyed the interim administration’s concerns over what it described as continued provocative statements by ousted PM Sheikh, who is currently residing “happily” in India, it was reported.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Indian High Commissioner today to convey the Government of Bangladesh’s serious concern to the Government of India for allowing fugitive Sheikh Hasina to continue to make incendiary statements calling upon her supporters to engage in terrorist activities in Bangladesh, aiming to thwart the upcoming parliamentary elections,” the Bangladesh foreign office was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
On Monday, a Facebook post by a Qatar-based journalist named Zulkarnain Saer claimed that two alleged suspects crossed into India on December 12 and are currently in Assam’s Guwahati.
“The shooter involved in the attempted murder by gunfire of Osman Hadi, an organiser of the Inqilab Mancha, is former Chhatra League (Awami League student wing) leader Faisal Karim Masud, also known as Daud Khan. Along with his accomplice, motorcycle rider Alamgir Hossain, he crossed the Haluaghat border in Mymensingh and entered India on December 12. According to a special intelligence source, after entering India, Jahangir Kabir Nanak’s PS, Md Masudur Rahman Biplob, provided this Indian phone number to Faisal Karim Masud: +91 *00*39*0. Using this number, Faisal Karim Masud, aka Daud Khan, sent selfies last night to several phone numbers. One of those numbers intercepted the image through which this photo was obtained. It has been confirmed that the photo was taken yesterday in Guwahati, Assam, India,” Saer posted on Monday.
New Delhi has dismissed the allegations, reiterating that India had never allowed its territory to be used for activities hostile to the interests of the friendly people of Bangladesh. India’s foreign ministry also said that it expected that “the interim government of Bangladesh will take all necessary measures for ensuring internal law and order, including for the purpose of holding peaceful elections”, news agency PTI reported.
