The National Central Bureau at the police headquarters has asked CID to investigate whether Harris Chowdhury, former BNP leader and fugitive convict in the August 21 grenade attack case, is dead.

The NCB, Interpol’s correspondence desk in Dhaka, sent the letter to CID on January 12 following reports of Harris’s death.

“A day after news of Harris Chowdhury’s death was published in the media, we sent a letter to the CID, asking it to investigate the matter and inform us,” Mohiul Islam, assistant inspector general (NCB), told The Daily Star yesterday.

If Harris is dead, the NCB will request Interpol to remove his name from its red notice, he said.

Mohiul said the CID has been working to get information on the matter.

On January 11, various media outlets ran reports on Harris’s death after his cousin Ashiq Chowdhury in a Facebook post claimed that the BNP leader passed away at a hospital in the UK three and a half months ago, and was buried there.

Quoting his daughter, some media outlets reported that Harris died of post Covid-19 complications in a Dhaka hospital and was buried in the capital.

Mohammad Kamruzzaman, special superintendent of CID’s Dhaka metropolitan (South) which is tasked with investigating the matter, said officials have written to the police in Sylhet, where Harris was born, to investigate the matter.

“I will be able to give you an update after receiving the findings from Sylhet,” he added.

Harris, political secretary to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, had disappeared when a military-backed caretaker government took over in 2007. The Interpol red notice was served on him in November 2015.

On August 21 in 2004, a grisly grenade attack was carried out on an anti-terrorism rally organised by Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, then leader of the opposition, was the target of the attack. The BNP-Jamaat alliance government was in office at the time.