Ex-president Abdul Hamid returns to Bangladesh month after departure sparked uproar

Dhaka: Bangladesh's former president Abdul Hamid, who served two terms during deposed premier Sheikh Hasina’s regime, returned to the country on Monday after receiving medical treatment abroad.

The 81-year-old ex-president returned from Thailand a month after his “secret departure” sparked protests in Bangladesh for being allowed to leave despite being accused in a murder case.

“He landed here in predawn hours on a Thai Airways flight. He left the airport on completion of required immigration formalities that took nearly an hour and a half,” an official of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) told reporters.

Hamid returned like other ordinary passengers, said HSIA Executive Director Group Captain SM Ragib Samad. Private TV channels also shared footage of his car leaving the airport.

He left Dhaka on May 8 through the same airport after completing the required formalities but his quiet departure sparked loud protests.

Leaders and activists of the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP), which led last year’s violent movement that ousted former prime minister Hasina’s Awami League government, said authorities let Hamid "flee” despite being accused in a murder case.

Home Affairs Adviser Retd Lt Gen Jahangir Alam Chowdhury had vowed to step down if he failed to take punitive action against the officials involved, claiming he was unaware of the departure at the time.

Following the protests, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’s interim government formed two inquiry committees, one of which comprised three advisers.

The authorities also suspended two police officers and withdrew another from his assignment in airport immigration on charges of “negligence of duty”.

During a routine visit to a police station in the capital on Monday, home adviser Chowdhury said that the question of Hamid's arrest upon his arrival did not arise as there was no warrant against him.

He added that an investigation into the case was underway and Hamid would face legal actions if he were found guilty of committing any crime.

Media reports and sources close to Hamid said he was diagnosed with cancer and was getting treated in Bangkok.

"The former president went to Thailand for medical treatment. We allowed it as there is no court order against him or embargo by any agency," the Daily Star newspaper reported at that time, quoting an unnamed source.

Hamid is one of the accused in a murder case in his hometown in northern Kishorganj. The case was lodged in connection with last year's violent movement, also dubbed the July Uprising, led by Students against Discrimination (SAD), a large part of which later emerged as NCP.

Deposed premier Hasina, her expatriate son Sajeeb Wajed Joy and daughter Saima Wazed Putul, stationed in New Delhi as the WHO regional director for Southeast Asia, were also named in the case.

The NCP and SAD called Hamid a “cohort” of Hasina though he completed his term months ahead of the ouster of the past regime on August 5, 2024.