<p>Dhaka: The <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/bangladesh">Bangladesh</a> parliament secretariat and the election commission are faced with a legal complexity over declaring the slain lawmaker's parliamentary seat vacant if his body is not found, officials said on Monday.</p>.<p>Anwarul Azim Anar, a three-time parliamentarian from the Jhenaidah-4 segment in Bangladesh and also the president of Awami League's Kaliganj sub-district unit left Dhaka on May 12 to undergo medical treatment at Kolkata, from where he went missing the very next day.</p>.Bangladesh MP murder: Main suspect may have escaped to US, trying to trace him through Interpol, chief detective says.<p>According to the Kolkata police, circumstantial evidence indicated that the MP was first strangled and killed after which his body was chopped into pieces and dumped in different areas. Traces of his body or body parts are yet to be found.</p>.<p>If his dead body is not found, complications may arise over declaring his parliamentary seat vacant.</p>.<p>Officials and legal experts said Bangladesh law requires a by-election within 90 days if any parliamentary seat is vacated due to the resignation or death of a lawmaker.</p>.<p>But they said unless the body of the ruling Awami League lawmaker is found it might cause difficulty in announcing his seat vacated.</p>.<p>“There are instances when lawmakers were killed. But Azim’s murder caused an unprecedented situation,” constitutional expert Shahdhin Malik told reporters.</p>.<p>According to Malik, the home ministry must inform the parliament secretariat and the election commission that he was killed “otherwise they do not have scope to be confirmed about his death'.</p>.<p>'So it is crucial to ensure that he is dead for the parliament secretariat and the election commission to take subsequent steps for reelection,” he said.</p>.<p>Experts said the situation could also complicate Azim's private succession issue.</p>.<p>Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan last week told the media that Azim was killed in Kolkata but his body has not been found.</p>.<p>According to media reports, the lawmaker was killed on May 13 night and the assailants slashed his body into pieces and then dumped them separately into a canal in Kolkata.</p>.<p>Parliament Secretariat’s senior secretary KM Abdus Salam said Speaker Shirun Sharmin Chaudhury was expected to give a decision after consultation with legal experts and others concerned.</p>.<p>Bangladeshi and Indian police so far arrested several murder suspects who reportedly confessed their involvement in the killing while detectives in Kolkata carried out searches in a canal in the West Bengal capital with a detained assailant in search of the body but it yielded no result.</p>.<p>Three senior Bangladeshi detective branch officials are now in Kolkata as part of the investigation.</p>.Bangladesh police team reaches Kolkata, to probe MP's murder with Bengal CID.<p>Bangladesh police’s detective branch chief Harunur Rashid said the suspected key-murder plotter Akhtaruzzaman was on the run abroad and might have fled to the US while efforts were underway to track him down for extradition to be exposed to justice.</p>.<p>Azim was elected to parliament thrice since 2014 and in his election affidavit he described him as a trader and farmer but police records suggested previously he was accused in 21 criminal cases including murders and cross-border smuggling. PTI AR ZH AKJ ZH ZH</p>
<p>Dhaka: The <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/bangladesh">Bangladesh</a> parliament secretariat and the election commission are faced with a legal complexity over declaring the slain lawmaker's parliamentary seat vacant if his body is not found, officials said on Monday.</p>.<p>Anwarul Azim Anar, a three-time parliamentarian from the Jhenaidah-4 segment in Bangladesh and also the president of Awami League's Kaliganj sub-district unit left Dhaka on May 12 to undergo medical treatment at Kolkata, from where he went missing the very next day.</p>.Bangladesh MP murder: Main suspect may have escaped to US, trying to trace him through Interpol, chief detective says.<p>According to the Kolkata police, circumstantial evidence indicated that the MP was first strangled and killed after which his body was chopped into pieces and dumped in different areas. Traces of his body or body parts are yet to be found.</p>.<p>If his dead body is not found, complications may arise over declaring his parliamentary seat vacant.</p>.<p>Officials and legal experts said Bangladesh law requires a by-election within 90 days if any parliamentary seat is vacated due to the resignation or death of a lawmaker.</p>.<p>But they said unless the body of the ruling Awami League lawmaker is found it might cause difficulty in announcing his seat vacated.</p>.<p>“There are instances when lawmakers were killed. But Azim’s murder caused an unprecedented situation,” constitutional expert Shahdhin Malik told reporters.</p>.<p>According to Malik, the home ministry must inform the parliament secretariat and the election commission that he was killed “otherwise they do not have scope to be confirmed about his death'.</p>.<p>'So it is crucial to ensure that he is dead for the parliament secretariat and the election commission to take subsequent steps for reelection,” he said.</p>.<p>Experts said the situation could also complicate Azim's private succession issue.</p>.<p>Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan last week told the media that Azim was killed in Kolkata but his body has not been found.</p>.<p>According to media reports, the lawmaker was killed on May 13 night and the assailants slashed his body into pieces and then dumped them separately into a canal in Kolkata.</p>.<p>Parliament Secretariat’s senior secretary KM Abdus Salam said Speaker Shirun Sharmin Chaudhury was expected to give a decision after consultation with legal experts and others concerned.</p>.<p>Bangladeshi and Indian police so far arrested several murder suspects who reportedly confessed their involvement in the killing while detectives in Kolkata carried out searches in a canal in the West Bengal capital with a detained assailant in search of the body but it yielded no result.</p>.<p>Three senior Bangladeshi detective branch officials are now in Kolkata as part of the investigation.</p>.Bangladesh police team reaches Kolkata, to probe MP's murder with Bengal CID.<p>Bangladesh police’s detective branch chief Harunur Rashid said the suspected key-murder plotter Akhtaruzzaman was on the run abroad and might have fled to the US while efforts were underway to track him down for extradition to be exposed to justice.</p>.<p>Azim was elected to parliament thrice since 2014 and in his election affidavit he described him as a trader and farmer but police records suggested previously he was accused in 21 criminal cases including murders and cross-border smuggling. PTI AR ZH AKJ ZH ZH</p>