Quayum fears he would be framed

BNP Dhaka city unit joint convener MA Quayum yesterday claimed his fear of being framed by the government in the case over the killing of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella had finally come true.

"After detectives picked up my younger brother [MA Matin], and the home minister's statement that a big brother hired and financed hitmen to kill the Italian citizen, I feared that the government was going to implicate me in the matter to malign my image and that of the BNP," he told The Daily Star over the phone from Malaysia.

Talking to this correspondent on Tuesday, Quayum, also a former ward commissioner, alleged that the government wanted to make him the "scapegoat" by branding him "Boro Bhai" (big brother), who, according to police, had hired professionals to kill Tavella to put pressure on the administration.

Just a few hours after the conversation, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told The Daily Star and a number of other media outlets that Quayum was that big brother.

Pointing to the home boss's statement, Quayum yesterday said after the minister's statement, police would have no way but to frame him as the big brother, "no matter who the real perpetrators behind the killing were".

"I have information that police have already threatened my brother that they would have him killed in 'crossfire' if he did not give confessional statement under section-164 that I have sent him money to carry out the killing," Quayum said.

He added that plainclothes detectives picked up his brother from his house at Madhya Badda in the capital on October 20.

Owner of Sawdesh Properties and Navid Wool Wear, Quayum also said police were putting pressure on the four people, arrested in connection with the killing of Tavella, to get such confessional statements that he was the financer of the killing.

He claimed that the arrestees' family members have conveyed this message to him.

The BNP leader, who left the country on April 28, the day elections to Dhaka North and Dhaka South city corporations were held, said he had planned to return to the country next month as he stands accused in over 36 cases, most of which were "politically motivated".

"But I don't know what I will do now. I'll talk to party high-ups, including the party's acting secretary general, to decide the next course of action."

"I fear that police will kill me in crossfire if I return to the country," said Quayum, who is considered as one of the trusted leaders of the BNP chief.

Quayum was assigned to play a key role in making the opposition's "March for Democracy" programme in the capital on December 29 last year a success, sources said.