Dhaka: Bangladesh government on Monday transferred a Major General posted as Military Secretary to President Zillur Rahman amid reports of his suspected links to militant outfit HuJI, which is accused of carrying out several abortive attempts on Premier Sheikh Hasina's life in the past.
No official statement was issued regarding the development, but military sources said Major General M Ehtesham Ul Haque was transferred to 66 Infantry Division in northwestern Rangpur as its General Officer Commanding (GOC).
Haque, who was recently promoted to the rank of the two-star General, was not available for comments. However, sources said he was served the order hours after mass-circulated Prothom Alo newspaper published a report about his alleged links with militants in its yesterday's edition.
Quoting an unidentified official, private Bdnews24 news agency said the transfer had nothing to do with the Alo report which claimed that Haque helped a suspected HuJI militant get a private job in northeastern Sylhet months ahead of the outfit carried out an abortive attempt to kill Hasina during her election campaign in 2001.
Haque was posted in paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) as a lieutenant colonel at that time, when he allegedly pursued for a job for Masud Ahmed Shakil.
The newspaper quoting investigators said Haque also allegedly interfered in a police move to raid a suspected militant hideout in Sylhet months ahead of the September 26,
2001 attempt on Hasina's life.
According to the report, HuJI planned to kill Hasina using bombs at a Muslim shrine at that time but she escaped as she had eventually cancelled her plans to visit the place.
The Alo report quoting investigators said Haque was contacted only once during the probe into the HuJI's 2001 bid on Hasina's life, when he had declined his involvement.
The ruling Awami League and several analysts alleged that the appropriate investigations could not be carried out in several militancy-related cases when the now main opposition
BNP-led four-party government was in power from 2001 to 2006.
The report said Shakil, who is under detention, told them he became acquainted with Haque at a mosque in Dhaka in 2000 when he joined Tablig Jamaat, a New Delhi-based non-political religious group that preaches Islam across the world.
Security analysts earlier said they feared the militant infiltration in lower ranks of law enforcement agencies and Army, but Haque was the first senior officer to be suspected for his alleged links with a militant outfit.
Suspected HuJI assailants earlier made several attempts on Hasina's life, with most deadly one being the August 21, 2004 attack that killed 24 people at a rally when she narrowly escaped.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, October 12, 2009, 16:32