Bangladesh Will Seek Interpol's Help to Bring Back 'Mastermind' of Lawmaker's Murder: Official

Bangladesh is to enlist Interpol's assistance in apprehending the "mastermind" who is still at large in the murder of governing party lawmaker Anwarul Azim Anar, who was found dead in Kolkata last week.

Dhaka:Bangladesh will seek help from Interpol to bring back the fugitive "mastermind" of the brutal killing of the ruling party lawmaker Anwarul Azim Anar, who was found murdered in Kolkata last week, a top official said here on Sunday. Dhaka Metropolitan Police's (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) chief Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid made the remarks while talking to reporters at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Sunday just before leaving for Kolkata to investigate the murder case.

Anar, a three-time parliamentarian from the Jhenaidah-4 segment in Bangladesh and also the president of Awami League's Kaliganj sub-district unit left Dhaka on May 12 to undergo medical treatment at Kolkata, from where he went missing the very next day. Search for him began after Gopal Biswas, a resident of Baranagar in north Kolkata and an acquaintance of the Bangladeshi politician, filed a complaint with the local police on May 18.

According to the Kolkata police, circumstantial evidence indicated that the MP was first strangled and killed after which his body was chopped into pieces and dumped in different areas. Traces of his body or body parts are yet to be found. "We will seek help from Interpol to bring back Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen, the fugitive "mastermind" of Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar murder," said Harun, who is also additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Harun also said that an application will be submitted through the inspector general of police for the repatriation of Shaheen, a childhood friend of the slain lawmaker. A three-member detective branch team has left Dhaka on Sunday and reached Kolkata to investigate the murder of Azim.

Harun said the detective branch team will first go to the murder scene in Kolkata and they will interrogate Jihad, who was arrested in India in connection with the murder. A Bangladesh court on Friday sent three suspects to an eight-day police remand for their alleged involvement in Anar's brutal murder while in India, the West Bengal police claimed to have arrested a Bangladeshi, working as a butcher in Mumbai, from North 24 Parganas district for his alleged involvement in the grisly murder.

In a new twist to the ongoing probe, the West Bengal CID officials on Saturday claimed that an angle of gold smuggling could be a possible reason behind the killing. The investigators claimed that an alleged rift over gold smuggling between Anar and his friend, who is a US citizen and his business partner, could be the cause of the crime.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan earlier named a businessman as the key suspect in Anar's murder and added that his ministry was working with India and the US to get and put him on trial for the alleged crime.