Dhaka: Bangladesh police on Saturday arrested the elder daughter of a key fugitive accused in the assassination of the country`s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as officials suspect of possible attempts to disrupt the murder trial at its final stage.
Mehraj Rashid Khandaker, daughter of absconding ex-Army Colonel Abdur Rashid who is on the run to evade death penalty, was arrested here in connection with the bomb attack on a ruling party lawmaker and a key lawyer on the prosecution side of the trial, police officials said.
The arrest came as the final appeal hearing of the 1975 coup plotters was underway at the apex court.
Mehraj`s arrest from her posh Gulshan residence came a day after the brother of ex-army Major Shariful Haque Dalim, an absconding convict, was remanded in custody for eight days along with another suspect on a court order for their suspected link to the attack on Fazle Noor Taposh.
Taposh, a nephew of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and whose parents were also killed in the 1975 carnage, had escaped with minor injuries in the attack carried out three days ago.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is now in Sweden to join an international conference, today told a reception at Stockholm that she suspected the role of the 1975 coup plotters in the attack on Taposh.
"Taposh came under a bomb attack at such a time, when appeal hearing of Bangabandhu murder case has started," a report quoted Hasina as saying.
"When Taposh was only three-year old, his father and mother were brutally killed by the defeated forces in 1975. Taposh, after years of hard work, established himself as a barrister. But the evil force is again out to kill him," Hasina said.
Earlier, senior government leaders including Law Minister Shafique Ahmed and Home Minister Sahara Khatun had feared that the attack could be an attempt to disrupt the trial at its final stage.
Authorities have ordered an enhanced security for both the state and defence lawyers involved in the final appeal hearing of the case at the Apex Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
The appeal hearing of the case began two weeks ago, eight and half years after the High Court upheld death penalties of the 12 ex-Army officers, and a year after accepting the
prayers after initial leave to appeal prayers of the five who are now in jail to face the trial.
Among the 12 convicted in the Bangabandhu Murder Trial, five are now in jail, six others are on the run abroad and one has died in Zimbabwe after the High Court verdict in 2000.
Bureau Report
