Ahsanullah Master Killing
BNP blocked search for masterminds
Reveals Wikileaks
The four-party alliance led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) blocked the investigation process of finding out the masterminds of the killing of AL leader Ahsanullah Master to protect BNP's top leaders.
On April 18, 2005, the then US ambassador to Bangladesh Harry K Thomas, quoting reliable sources, in a cable report, informed Washington about the incident that was published by whistleblower Wikileaks on August 30.
Thomas said the then ruling government blocked police investigation about involvement of BNP's top leaders into the gruesome murder.
On May 7, 2004, Ahsanullah Master, a sitting member of Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad, was shot dead in broad daylight at a meeting at Gazipur district.
One year after the killing, a speedy tribunal court sentenced 22 people to death while handed over six others lifetime imprisonment on April 16, 2005 for the murder.
Most of the convicts are leaders and workers of the than ruling party BNP. Of them, 10 are now hiding in different neighbouring countries while 16 are now in jail custody and the remaining two died.
Though Awami League expressed satisfaction over the judgment, it demanded to find the masterminds of the killing and bring them to justice.
After the incident, Ahsanullah Master's son Zahid Hassan Russel was elected as parliament member of Gazipur-2 constituency in 2004 by-elections and later he was re-elected in the 2008 general election.
Russel, now the chairman of a parliamentary standing committee on Ministry of Youth and Sports, demanded immediate extradition of the killers hiding abroad and execution of the court verdict.
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