Ex-army personnel Ziaul Ahsan placed on 8-day remand

A Dhaka court has granted 8-day remand of Major General Ziaul Ahsan (retd), former director general of National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre, in a murder case filed at New Market police station in the capital.

The court pf Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Dhaka passed the order Friday as police produced him before the court with a 10-day remand plea.

Ziaul Ahsan’s lawyer pleaded for his bail. But the court turned down the appeal.

Earlier, the court granted a 10-day remand to former law minister Anisul Huq and business advisor Salman F Rahman to the deposed Sheikh Hasina government in the same case.

Defence lawyer Nazmun Nahar told the court that Ziaul Ahsan never worked at the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI). He did not create the “Aina Ghar” (secret prison). A media trial of him is taking place on Facebook. And, he was actually arrested from his residence on 7 August.

The plaintiff’s lawyer Mohammad Ullah Khan, on the other hand, told the court that Ziaul Ahsan was the mastermind of incidents of forced disappearance and murder. He is involved with “genocide”  and “Aina Ghar” is his brain-child. He worked as the prime mover of turning the Awami League into a fascist regime for a long period of time. He is involved with crimes against humanity. This former army personnel had been involved in kidnapping and forced disappearances of dissenters and opposition men since 2012.

At a stage of the hearing, Ziaul Ahsan told the court, “I was taken from my residence on 7 August and kept at ‘Aina Ghar’. I did not construct any ‘Aina Ghar’. Seventy per cent of my heart is blocked. I was sent on voluntary retirement. I never went to Dhanmondi. NTMC only supplied intelligence information digitally. No case was filed against me before.”

The government of Sheikh Hasina was ousted through a movement of students and people on 5 August.

Later on Tuesday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said about relieving him from the job.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said in a text message on Friday about the arrest of Ziaul Ahsan.