Staff Reporter :
The Malaysian Immigration Department has detained a former Bangladeshi envoy Md. Khairuzzaman to Malaysia, who has been residing there as a refugee for almost a decade.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam on Thursday told journalists that the government is trying to bring back Md. Khairuzzaman, a retired army major and also former envoy to Malaysia, after he was detained by the Malaysian police on Wednesday.
“The letter issued by the Malaysian Home Ministry has said that he (Khairuzzaman) has been arrested due to “an offence committed”. I don’t know much about it and the embassy (Bangladesh’s High Commission in Malaysia ) knows the issue, maybe it is an “over staying ” issue, he said.
Malaysian leading daily “Star” said Khairuzzaman was arrested on Wednesday morning from his residence in Ampang area in Kuala Lumpur.
However, the Malaysian Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin explained the grounds of the arrest and said it was due to “an offence committed and a request by his home country (Bangladesh).”
“Khairuzzaman is now at a deportation centre in Malaysia. There is an opportunity to interrogate him again and investigation will be conducted regarding the case against him so far,” the state minister said while replying to a question.
Khairuzzaman was accused of participating in the 1975 Jail Killing case. He was later acquitted and appointed as a High Commissioner to Malaysia in 2007 before being ordered back to Dhaka after Awami League came into power in 2009. But he didn’t return to Bangladesh and obtained a UN Refugee Card in Kuala Lumpur and continued to stay there.
Khairuzzaman reportedly sought refugee status and continued staying there in Malaysia since 2009. Later, Khairuzzaman, accused of atrocities against members of the ruling party Awami League, reportedly holds a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card there (Malaysia).
“We hope to be able to bring him back soon. The home ministry and the law affairs ministry will jointly decide when he will be questioned again or how the case will be renewed,” Shahriar said.
The state minister said that Malaysia’s Home Ministry had written a letter to the Bangladesh Embassy announcing that the cause of his arrest is a breach of an immigration law, however, the state minister didn’t know which law was broken.
Replying to a question Shahriar said “I don’t know anything about his refugee card. The government of Malaysia said that he has been detained due to violation of immigration law, he added.
According to Malaysian media report, Khairuzzaman’s lawyer has also served a legal notice to the authorities and demanded the former envoy’s immediate release.
The lawyer, who was also not named, alleged that Khairuzzaman was detained without any valid reason, and a habeas corpus will be made in court, if he is not released within 24 hours, Malaysian newspaper the Star reported.
However, the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur did not want to make any comment when asked whether the former envoy will be deported to Bangladesh.
