I am being put on the spot to frame BNP
Refuting the government’s claim of masterminding Tavella’s murder, Dhaka city BNP leader MA Quayum has told Dhaka Tribune that he was being set up.
“I have not been in the country for six to seven months. I do not know anything. I am being put on the spot to frame BNP,” he told the Dhaka Tribune over phone last night.
A month after Dhaka-based Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was murdered, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told media yesterday that former Dhaka city ward commissioner Quayum was the mastermind.
The minister also said that Quayum, also the joint convener of the Dhaka city unit BNP, used his brother in Dhaka to pay the criminals, now is police custody, to kill the Italian.
“I do not know anything about the incident. I came abroad a few months ago to save myself from the government’s repression. I do BNP’s politics – this is my biggest fault.
“Apart from this, I do not have any fault. Only for this reason, I am being implicated in the case. This much is now clear,” he said.
Quayum, a former commissioner of a ward in Badda area of Dhaka, went abroad a few months ago. His family said he had been living in Malaysia since but had occasionally travelled to London as well.
He contested the parliamentary elections from Badda in 2008 with the BNP’s ticket. He was the organising secretary of the previous Khoka-Salam led committee of of Dhaka city unit BNP.
Originally a resident of the Narsingdhi district, he made his name in politics through his activities in the Badda area.
“I left Bangladesh soon after the April 29 city corporation elections. Now my question is, how is it possible for a person to mastermind such a big thing by staying outside the country?”
He also asked how the minister knew his name when the police is still looking for the “Big Brother” and the arrestees, who are still in police remand, have yet to give any statement before the court.
“If I really instructed my brother to kill anyone, would he be at home waiting for police to pick him up? Even a mad man will not believe this. My brother will be tortured in custody and forced to say that I masterminded the killing,” said Quayum, expressing concerns about the arrest of his brother MA Matin.
Quayum also said: “My brother is not involved with politics. He is being harassed just because he is my brother.”
Source: Dhaka Tribune