Dhaka/New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) Lieutenant Colonel (retd) Khandakar Abdur Rashid, one of the fugitive "killer majors" convicted for the assassination of Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was spotted in Dhaka early this month.

Reliable sources in Dhaka and New Delhi say that Rashid, for whom there is a "look out" notice under the law, entered the country and met select people before doing the disappearing act again.

Among those he reportedly met was D.D.S. Quddus, an antique dealer, who is a brother-in-law of Rashid's co-convict Lt Col. (retd) Syed Faruq Rahman, who is in Dhaka jail as the self-confessed key man in the military putsch that he led on the morning of Aug 15, 1975.

The sentences against them have not been carried out because appeals are pending in court.

Rashid's appearance in Dhaka ahead of parliamentary elections has raised eyebrows in political circles. There is also concern among security experts since Rashid's name figured in a 1999 plot to assassinate Sheikh Hasina, Mujib's daughter and former prime minister whose government brought him to trial.

There have been at least three attempts on Hasina's life. She had a narrow escape in the last one in August 2004. Bomb explosions at a rally attended by her killed and injured several leaders and activists of her Awami League party.

It is not clear if Rashid's mission was political. Both Faruq and Rashid had floated a Freedom Party in the mid-1980s and put up candidates in the 1991 and 1996 elections. In that era, they spoke openly of their role in the 1975 events. They fled the country on the day the victory of Hasina's Awami League became certain in the 1996 poll.

Rashid is known to be shuttling between Libya, where he initially fled and is doing business, and Pakistan where he lives under the protection of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

With double conviction, Bangladesh observers say, it is impossible for Rashid to get a visa, enter the country, where he is wanted, and move around without official connivance. Informed sources say Rashid either arrived undetected or was escorted on arrival.

He is known to have met Prime Minister Khaleda Zia whenever she has been on a tour of the Gulf, having worked under her husband Ziaur Rahman, the army chief who went on to rule Bangladesh for five years (1976-81).

Mujib and a score of his extended family members were killed that Aug 15 morning. The retired and serving soldiers who were involved were tried 21 years later. Fifteen of them were sentenced to execution by firing squad in 1998. Of them, four are in custody and Rashid is among the eight who are absconding.

In another trial of the killings in jail of top leaders of Mujib's government, carried out on Nov 3, 1975, both Rashid and Faruq were convicted and given life terms by a court in 2004.

Detailed accounts of the events have painted Faruq as the chief of the operations, but Rashid as the "mastermind" who planned and consolidated the gains of their action.

Rashid is a nephew of Khandakar Moshtaque Ahmed, who took office the day Mujib was killed. He operated from the presidential palace till Moshtaque Ahmed was ousted after three months.