Ex-army officer Ziaul placed on 8-day remand

A Dhaka court on Friday placed former army officer Major General Ziaul Ahsan on an 8-day remand in a case filed over the death of a shop employee in the capital's New Market area on July 16.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Arfatul Rakib passed the order.

Md Sajib Miah, sub-inspector of New Market police station and also investigation officer of the case, produced him before the court and sought a 10-day remand to interrogate former army officer Major General Ziaul Ahsan in the case.

Ziaul's lawyer Naznin Nahar filed a petition seeking cancellation of the remand. However, the court rejected the petition. 

Army, BGB, and additional police personnel were deployed on the premises of the court ahead of Ziaul produced there.

Ziaul, former director general of NTMC, was arrested from Dhaka's Khilkhet in a case filed with New Market Police Station over the killing of Shahjahan Ali, 24, during quota reform protests on July 16.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) announced in a brief message on Friday that Ziaul was arrested late on Thursday night in the Khilkhet area based on secret information.

On August 6, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Directorate issued a statement saying Major General Ziaul Ahsan, director general of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC), had been relieved of his duties.

Ziaul Ahsan was commissioned into the Bangladesh Army in 1991. A trained commando and paratrooper, Ziaul served in the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) for an extended period. He joined RAB as a deputy commander on March 5, 2009, and later that year, on August 27, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed as director of RAB’s intelligence wing. He served as additional director general of RAB from December 7, 2013 until he left the force.

While serving as additional director general of RAB, he was transferred to the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) as deputy director general. He was later attached to the National Security Intelligence (NSI) as director on April 28, 2016.

In 2017, he became the director of the NTMC. On September 5, 2022, the Ministry of Public Administration issued an order appointing Major General Ziaul Ahsan as the director general of the agency.

On Wednesday, Salman F Rahman, private industry affairs adviser to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and former law minister Anisul Huq were placed on a 10-day remand in the same case.

The duo was arrested in Dhaka's Sadarghat on Tuesday.

On July 17, Ayesha Begum, mother of the victim, filed a murder case against some unnamed miscreants.

The victim Shahjahan was critically injured and died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital at 7:05pm while undergoing treatment, according to the case statement.