Haris Ahmed still ‘wanted’ on police website

Haris Ahmed’s name is still on the ‘wanted’ list of the Bangladesh Police website. This list of the police headquarters includes the names and photographs of top fugitive criminals. Even on Wednesday night, the name and picture of the controversial character Haris was still on the list.

Haris Ahmed was sentenced, along with two other of his brothers Anis Ahmed and Tofail Ahmed alias Josef, for murder. Haris and Josef were facing life-term imprisonment in two murder cases each and Anis in one.

Josef was released on presidential pardon on 27 May 2018 after a long stint in jail. According to police records, Haris and Anis were fugitives for long. The home ministry remitted their sentences. Under Section 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the home ministry issued a gazette notification on 28 March 2019 regarding this acquittal. This was revealed in a report of Prothom Alo on 16 February this year. Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a press release the same day with this information. Anis, Haris and Josef are the brothers of the army chief General Aziz Ahmed. ISPR issued the press release in protest against a recent Al-Jazeera report regarding them.

According to sources in the home ministry, the gazette notification regarding the acquittal was sent to the concerned magistrate court as well as the principal secretary of the prime minister’s office, the inspector general of police (IGP), the law ministry, the home ministry and other concerned persons. However, till Wednesday night while this report was being written, Haris Ahmed’s name was still on the ‘wanted’ list on the police’s website.

When asked about the matter, spokesperson of the police headquarters, assistant inspector general (media and public relations) Md Sohel Rana told Prothom Alo, “The ‘wanted’ list is uploaded and updated according to the specific rules upon directives from the relevant authorities of the government. In the case of removing a name, there is scope to drop any name from the list depending on directives from the due authorities based on an application in accordance to the rules.”