CID gets three more months to investigate

A Dhaka court yesterday gave the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), for the eleventh time, three more months to complete further investigation in a case filed over killing of Maj Gen Abul Manzur in 1981.

Judge (in charge) Rafiqul Islam of the First Addition District and Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka fixed July 24 for submission of the probe report.

The order came after CID Special Superintendent Abdul Kahar Akond, also the investigation officer, petitioned for more time to further investigate the case.

In his petition, Kahar said he had gathered important evidence of the killing, and needed more time to verify the evidence.

The then chief of army staff HM Ershad, now Jatiya Party chief and special envoy to the prime minister, is the main accused in the case. Earlier, Ershad was exempted from court appearances.

Two others accused -- Maj (retd) Kazi Emdadul Haque and Lt Col (retd) Mostafa Kamaluddin Bhuiyan -- were present yesterday.

Manzur, the commander of sector-8 during the Liberation War, was killed in Chittagong Cantonment on June 1, 1981, two days after the assassination of the then president Ziaur Rahman.

His elder brother Abul Mansur Ahmed filed the case 14 years later on February 28, 1995.