A body assumed to be of Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Harris Chowdhury was exhumed on Wednesday for carrying out DNA tests following the orders of the High Court.
The HC ordered for the DNA test on September 5 after Harris鈥檚 daughter barrister Samira Tanzin Chowdhury filed a writ petition to resolve confusion regarding the identity of her father.
A team of law enforcement agencies led by executive magistrate SM Russell Islam Noor exhumed the body from the Jamia Khatamun Graveyard of Jamia Khatamun Nabiyen Madrasha in Birulia Union in Savar.
The exhuming began at about 8:30am at the cemetery and a team of the Criminal Investigation Department collected DNA sample from the body.
Dhaka district superintendent of police Ahmed Muyeed, representatives from five organisations including the ministry of home affairs, the office of the registrar general, the district police, local representatives were present to maintain law and order during the proceedings.
Later, the body was taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue under tight security.
If the body was confirmed that of Harris Chowdhury, he will be buried in Sylhet as per his last wishes following the directives of the HC, said officials.
Executive magistrate SM Russell Islam Noor said, 鈥楢s Harris Chowdhury was a valiant freedom fighter, further steps will be taken as per the directions of the High Court to bury him, including giving him a state guard of honor.鈥�
Talking in support of the exhumation, Samira Tanzin Chowdhury said, 鈥楽ome still claim Harris Chowdhury is alive, hiding, or running away. A good, honest man has been wrongly portrayed as a criminal.鈥�
Following a state emergency in Bangladesh in 2007, Harris Chowdhury鈥攆ormer political adviser to ex-prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, reportedly fled to India to avoid arrest by law enforcement agencies amid raids on BNP leaders.
He was accused in the August 21 grenade attack case, leading to an Interpol red notice in 2015 and a life imprisonment sentence in 2018.
A Dhaka court also sentenced him seven years in prison for corruption in the Zia Charitable Trust case and implicated in the Shah AMS Kibria murder case, which is still under trial.
In January 2022, a Bengali national daily claimed that Harris Chowdhury had died in Dhaka three months earlier and was buried in Savar under the alias of Mahmudur Rahman.
Reports also suggested that he was living at the capital鈥檚 Panthapath area by masking his identity by taking the advantage of Covid-induced shutdown across the country.