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7 YRS INTO KIBRIA KILLING

Confidence lost, hopes not yet

Widow still believes one brave investigator will unearth the plot someday

Staff Correspondent
Although she has lost her confidence in investigators over the past seven years, Asma Kibria believes unmasking the masterminds behind the assassination of her husband SAMS Kibria is still possible if a brave and sincere officer takes over the probe.
“It was a big conspiracy," she told The Daily Star yesterday, "And I believe that a big gang was involved in it. Details of the plot and the masterminds can be unearthed if a courageous investigator carries out the probe with sincerity."
With a sense of disappointment for not seeing the perpetrators being brought to justice, the family will observe the seventh death anniversary of Kibria today.
The former finance minister was killed in a grenade attack with four others during a rally at Baidyer Bazar in Habiganj on January 27, 2005.
Asma Kibria said the persons, including former Habiganj deputy commissioner and former speaker of the House, who were mentioned in Mufti Hannan's confessional statement, should be interrogated during the fresh investigation ordered by a Sylhet court.
The court directive came on January 5 this year after Asma Kibria strongly objected to the supplementary charge sheet, terming it “incomplete and flawed".
Little progress has been made in the probe since then although the case has got a new investigation officer.
“I have always questioned the role of those who were investigators in the case earlier,” said Asma. “At one stage, I have become frustrated."
"I believe a number of big shots are involved in the case. And, if an investigator fears to interrogate those influential people and disclose their names, the culprits will never get punishment,” she added.
“This time, I want to meet the investigation officer and request him/her to quiz some politically influential people to find the masterminds."
In the investigation during this tenure of the Awami League-led government, only two new names were added to the accused list prepared during the term of last BNP-Jamaat government.
The first charge sheet of the case was submitted following a probe conducted in the then BNP-Jamaat rule.
“During the tenure of the last BNP-Jamaat government, the then investigation officer Munshi Atiqur Rahman tried many times to distort murder evidence and divert the case in another direction.
“He [Atiqur] was seriously biased and never helpful to us,” Asma said.
Asma said the then deputy commissioner of Habiganj district did not arrange ambulance after Kibria came under the attack. Also, the Awami League leader got no treatment immediately after he was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
She also said the then House speaker Jamiruddin Sircar did not help arrange a helicopter to carry Kibria to Dhaka from Habiganj.
“He [Jamiruddin] did not pick up the phone when we were in danger...even, no condolence proposal was moved in parliament for my husband,” Asma recalled.
The immediate past investigation officer, Rafiqul Islam of CID, told The Daily Star last night, "Now the new IO will examine the supplementary charge sheet I have placed, and submit a fresh one."
The day after the grenade blast, Habiganj district AL organising secretary Abdul Mazid Khan, now a lawmaker, filed two cases in this connection -- one for killing and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- with Habiganj Sadar Police Station.
The home ministry assigned CID's Munshi Atiqur Rahman as the IO of the two cases. A high-powered government probe committee submitted its report in April 2005 accusing 10 people, including some BNP leaders and activists, of Habiganj.
In his charge sheet submitted on March 10, 2005, the then IO also accused the
same 10 people, and his report was identical to that of the probe committee.
Receiving the first charge sheet, Sylhet Divisional Speedy THal Tribunal Judge Biplab Goswami started a trial through framing charges against the 10 accused. But following an appeal by the complainant, the High Court stayed the proceedings.
The complainant in the cases and Kibria's family repeatedly expressed their "no confidence" over the investigation and asked for reinvestigation. Further investigation was done in 2007-2008 caretaker government's tenure following a court order.
All the 10 accused got released on bail during the caretaker rule and one of them later died.