Staff Reporter :
A Dhaka court on Friday placed former army officer Major General Ziaul Ahsan on an eight-day remand for interrogation in a case filed over the death of a shop employee in the capital’s New Market area on July 16.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Arfatul Rakib passed the order after Investigation Officer Sajib Mia, a sub-inspector of New Market Police Station, produced Ziaul before the court with a 10-day remand appeal in the case, according to a sub-inspector working in the court. The defense also sought bail and the cancellation of the remand prayer.
Army, BGB, and additional police personnel were deployed on the court premises ahead of Ziaul’s appearance.
Ziaul, former director general of NTMC, was arrested from Dhaka’s Khilkhet in connection with a case filed with New Market Police Station over the killing of Shahjahan Ali, 24, during quota reform protests on July 16.
He was relieved of his post in the army on August 6 and detained under dramatic circumstances around midnight the same day after the plane he was on was brought back from the Dhaka airport runway to the boarding bridge.
During the proceedings on Friday, Ziaul told the court that since his detention on August 7, he was kept at Aynaghar (a secret detention facility), where many people were confined and tortured during the tenure of Hasina’s government. He also claimed that Aynaghar was not his creation and that no one had ever filed any complaint, case, or even a general diary against it.
Claiming his innocence, Ziaul asserted that he had not visited the New Market area during the incident and mentioned that he is suffering from heart issues.
On Wednesday, Salman F Rahman, private industry affairs adviser to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and former law minister Anisul Huq were placed on a 10-day remand in the same case. The duo was arrested in Dhaka’s Sadarghat on Tuesday.
On July 17, Ayesha Begum, mother of the victim, filed a murder case against some unnamed miscreants. The victim, Shahjahan, was critically injured and died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital at 7:05 pm while undergoing treatment, according to the case statement.