A Habiganj court yesterday issued arrest warrants against 11 people, including BNP leader Harris Chowdhury, and Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury, in the former finance minister SAMS Kibria murder case. Soon after the court order, BNP activists were pitted against Awami League men in a clash on the court premises. Over a dozen people were injured. The clash broke out when AL men
brought out a procession demanding death penalty for the accused, and BNP activists in another procession protested what they called a fabricated charge sheet. Though additional law enforcers were deployed in key points of the Habiganj town to avert further untoward incidents, tension was high in the area, said Officer-in-Charge Nazimuddin of Habiganj Sadar Police Station. SAMS Kibria, then an opposition lawmaker, was assassinated in a grenade attack while addressing a rally in Habiganj on January 27, 2005. The blast also killed Kibria's nephew Shah Manzur Huda, local AL leader Abdur Rahim and two others. Apart from Ariful and former premier Khaleda Zia's political secretary Harris, the other nine facing the arrest warrant are Habiganj municipality mayor and district BNP general secretary Golam Kibria Gaus, Moulana Md Tajuddin, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hye, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Badrul, Md Muhibur Rahman, Md Kajal Mia and Hafez Moulana Yahya. All of them were shown absconding in the supplementary charge sheet submitted to court by the CID on November 13. Advertisement Ariful, also a member of the convening committee for BNP's Sylhet metropolitan unit, and Gaus had been absent from their offices since the submission of the supplementary charge sheet. Contacted over the phone, Ariful said he had heard of the warrant and would appear before the court after getting a copy of the order. Gaus could not be reached over the phone and none from the municipality office could say where he was. Harris Chowdhury is accused in several cases including August 21 grenade attack, and Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases. Senior Judicial Magistrate Rashid Ahmed Milon fixed January 8 for the next hearing in the case. CASE HISTORY The day after the grenade attack, Abdul Mazid Khan, organising secretary of Habiganj district AL, filed two cases -- one for murder and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- with Habiganj Sadar Police Station. Munshi Atiqur Rahman of the CID, the investigation officer, submitted the first charge sheet on March 20, 2005, against 10 local BNP men. The family of Kibria outright rejected it saying the investigation failed to detect the masterminds. Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Biplab Goswami accepted the charge sheet but couldn't start the trial as the complainant filed a no-confidence petition. As the tribunal rejected the petition, the complainant sought time for lodging a petition with the High Court for a stay on the proceedings. And the tribunal granted the petitioner 10 days. Upon an appeal by the complainant, the HC on May 5, 2006 stayed the proceedings. Following another appeal, the Sylhet tribunal on May 14, 2006 ordered further probe into the cases. Reinvestigation began after the AL assumed power in 2009. Investigation Officer Rafiqul Islam, submitted the second charge sheet before a Habiganj magistrate's court on June 20, 2011. This time Lutfozzaman Babar, former BNP state minister for home, and Mufti Abdul Hannan, chief of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji), and 14 others were named. Babar and Hannan are now behind bars and facing trials in some other criminal cases. A week after the second charge sheet submission, Kibria's wife Asma Kibria filed a petition with a Habiganj court expressing no confidence in the investigation. The court then forwarded the case documents and the petition to the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal. Following two petitions by Asma and the tribunal prosecutor, the court on January 5, 2012 ordered the CID to carry out further probe by a senior officer. ASP Parul on November 13 submitted the supplementary charge sheet including the names of eleven people that the court yesterday asked police to arrest. Our correspondents from Sylhet and Moulvibazar contributed to the report.
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