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Police have suspended another constable over the escape of two death-row militants from their custody in the court area of Dhaka, taking the number of policemen facing action over the incident to eight.
Constable Mahmud, identified with a single name, was responsible for dividing the duty among his colleagues at the court on the day of the incident, Jasim Uddin, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said on Wednesday.
The latest suspension order came on Tuesday, as the government and DMP continued investigating if the negligence of law enforcers led to the escape of the convicts, reports bdnews24.com.
On Sunday, DMP suspended Constable Nure Azad, who was escorting four militant convicts all by himself last week when they suddenly sprayed some chemicals into his eyes.
Two of the convicts were whisked away by their cohorts. Azad was able to restrain the two others.
The other policemen taken off duty are Inspector Matiur Rahman, Sub-Inspector Nahidur Rahman, Assistant Town SI Mohiuddin, and constables Sharif Hasan, Abdus Sattar and Joynal, who were tasked with escorting the convicts to court.
On Nov 20, militants Moinul Hasan Shamim alias Samir and Abu Siddique Sohel alias Shakib were snatched from police custody on their way back to a lockup after testifying in a case.
Shamim and Sohel, both leaders of the outlawed militant outfit Ansar Al Islam, were sentenced to death over their involvement in the killings of writer-blogger Avijit Roy and publisher Faysal Arefin Dipan.
In the wake of the incident, a case was filed while Dhaka Metropolitan Police formed a five-member committee to find out what caused it and a Tk 2.0 million reward was announced for information leading to the capture of the runaway convicts. A red alert was also issued across the country.