Prof Humayun Azad murder: Death row convict Nur Mohammad arrested

The police have arrested Nur Mohammad alias Shameem, who was sentenced to death in the case filed over the killing of writer and professor Humayun Azad. He was arrested from the Shahjalal International Airport in the capital Tuesday upon his return from abroad.

Superintendent of police (SP) of the anti-terrorism unit Mahfuzul Alam Rasel confirmed this to Prothom Alo.

He said death convict in the Humayun Azad killing case Nur Mohammad alias Shameem was arrested from the Shahjalal International Airport upon his return from abroad. Later he was produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court in Dhaka. The court sent him to jail.

Relevant police sources say after carrying out the attack on professor Humayun Azad in 2004, Nur Mohammad went into hiding for three years in Naogaon. Later, he forged a fake passport using a different name and left the country for Saudi Arabia in 2008. He returned to the country once in 2017 and got married. Later, he returned to Saudi Arabia with his wife.

He was returning to the country using a different name again on Tuesday. However, based on information from the intelligence, he was arrested as soon as he landed. He confessed that he is Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) member Nur Mohammad in the primary investigation.

Earlier, on 13 April 2022, a Dhaka court sentenced four members of banned militant outfit JMB over the killing of professor Humayun Azad.

The four death convicts are - Mizanur Rahman alias Minhaz, Anwarul Alam alias Bhagne Shahid, Salehin alias Salahuddin and Nur Mohammad alias Shamim.

Among the four, JMB Shura members Mizanur and Anwarul Alam are in jail at the moment and Salehin is on the run.

According to the case statement, assailants hacked Humayun Azad leaving him fatally injured on the night of 26 February, 2004 on the way back from Amar Ekushey Book Fair.

The next day, his brother Manzur Kabir filed a case with Ramna police station in the capital alleging attempted murder. Humayun Azad died in Germany on 12 August that year while undergoing treatment. The case then turned into a murder case.

After three years of investigation, on 14 January 2007, the investigating officer filed a charge sheet against five accused. The trial of the case officially started through framing charges against the accused on 7 October, 2009.

According to case documents and confessional statements from two of the accused, top JMB leader Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai ordered the killing of Humayun Azad. Following that, Mizanur Rahman alias Minhaz, Anwarul Alam alias Bhagne Shahid, Salehin alias Salahuddin and Nur Mohammad alias Shamim carried out the attack led by Ataur Rahman Sunny.

The two accused who gave confessional statements are Mizanur and Anwarul.

Miznur, in his confessional statement, said, “We came to learn that Humayun Azad walks back to his home from the Ekushey Boimela every day at around 8:00 pm to 8:30 pm. After learning that, we went to Bangla Academy that day. Then at around 9:15 pm we started following Humayun Azad while he was returning home.”

“At one point I and Nur Mohammad stabbed him several times. Then Anwarul exploded a bomb as people around were coming towards us seeing the incident. Following the explosion the people around fled the scene. We too fled the spot at that chance. Later, at around 11:00 pm we informed Shayakh Abdur Rahman about the incident,” he said.