B’desh charges BNP official:

Subcontinent

A Bangladesh court on Tuesday charged an opposition party leader with the murder of an Italian aid worker, drawing an angry reaction from the party which accused the government of trying to discredit it.

M.A Quayum, the Dhaka city leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was indicted in absentia over the killing last year of the Italian charity worker Cesare Tavella.

Dhaka police have said the murder was part of a conspiracy to smear the secular government and destabilise Bangladesh, which has suffered a series of Islamist attacks on foreigners and religious minorities.

“The court will start hearing the witnesses from November 24. Five people are now in custody. Quayum and another (indicted person) are still absconding,” prosecutor Abdullah Abu told AFP.

Tavella was shot dead in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone in September last year by assailants riding on a motorbike.

Bangladesh’s elite security force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said last week he was killed by a new faction of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an extremist group. But the Islamic State group has also claimed responsibility.

The BNP said charging Quayum, who is believed to be living in exile in Malaysia, reflected “the government’s malicious intent”.

“The RAB DG (director general) said the new-JMB is responsible for Tavella’s murder. But today we saw that Quayum was indicted over the murder,” senior BNP official Asaduzzaman Ripon said. (AFP)