Malaysian police picks up ex-Bangladesh high commissioner Khairuzzaman

Malaysian immigration police picked up Mohamed Khairuzzaman, a former Bangladesh high commissioner to the country, on Wednesday morning from his residence in Selangor, on the outskirts of the capital of the country.

‘The immigration police picked him up,’ a prominent member of the Bangladesh diaspora confirmed, adding, ‘but there is no clue whether the detainee would be released after interrogation or face charges in a regular case.’

A Bangladesh high commission official said they were not aware of any move involving the former high commissioner.

Khairuzzaman, a former Bangladesh Army officer, was an accused in a case involving the killing of national leaders Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Mansur Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman, who were murdered in Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975.

After the assassinations of the national leaders in 1975, his service was placed at the foreign ministry. He served at the ministry and Bangladesh missions in Egypt and the Philippines.

He was sent to retirement and arrested after the taking over by the Awami League government in 1996.

Khairuzzaman was granted bail and reinstated as a director general at the foreign ministry in 2003, after the political changeover and taking over power by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in 2001.

A trial court acquitted him of the charge in 2004.

After the acquittal, he was appointed as ambassador to Myanmar and served there from September 2005 to August 2007. He was appointed as high commissioner to Malaysia in August 2007.

After taking over the power in early 2009, the Awami League government ordered him to come back home, but he declined to abide by the order.

Instead, he continued to live in Malaysia as a refugee under the UNHCR mechanisms.

Khairuzzaman was very selective in socialisation and avoided areas with a huge presence of Bangladesh workers and diaspora in Malaysia, according to a source in Kuala Lumpur.