The interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Prof Muhammad Yunus released Jasimuddin Rahmani, the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar al-Islam, dozens of jihadists and notorious terrorists after coming to power.

Many other extremists also managed to flee the prisons as their groups launched fatal attacks in July-August. Since then, Rahmani and other jihadist leaders have been speaking at Islamic conferences to instigate armed struggle in Arakan of Myanmar, northeast states, and Kashmir of India while showing sympathy for the Jamaat leaders executed for war crimes and those arrested for promoting extremism, raising eyebrows of the peace-loving citizens as well as the international community.

Another extremist leader, sacked major Syed Ziaul Haque, who professes an Islamic army and son-in-law of the government’s commission for investigating the incidents of enforced disappearance, is likely to get a clean chit soon.

Al Jazeera reporter Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami, US-based Islamist YouTuber Elias Hossain, France-based radical influencer Pinaki Bhattacharjee, and their patron Mahmudur Rahman, who is also the editor of Jamaat-backed newspaper the daily Amar Desh, are helping Zia get the clean chit.

On January 28, I wrote to the State Department, asking for updates on his application for withdrawal of the $5 million reward for his whereabouts. The email text is as follows:

For research purposes, I’m interested in the status of the US State Department’s declaration of a $5 million reward for information on Syed Ziaul Haque (aka Major Zia) and Akram Hossain, the two fugitive convicts linked to the banned Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) responsible for the terrorist attack on two Americans—Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Bonya Ahmed—on February 26, 2015.

I’ve learnt from a recent interview of Syed Ziaul Haque with an Al Jazeera reporter that he was preparing to apply for an exemption of his name from the reward, denying his involvement with militancy and AQIS, which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist group by the US government in 2016.

In the interview, the first time since his disappearance in 2011 after being punished for his involvement in a failed coup, Syed Ziaul Haque also urged the Bangladeshi interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus to pursue the US to get his name dropped.

Bangladeshi media reports suggest that Syed Ziaul Haque entered the country with a Pakistani passport in late December and applied to the government for withdrawal of criminal charges via his counsel, Barrister Sarwar Hossain.

He also asked the army chief to reinstate him and award him the gallantry award “Bir Uttam” for his role in the coup attempts in 2011 and 2024.

I’d like to know whether the State Department has received any application from Syed Ziaul Haque and what steps it may take in this regard.