Suffering multiple stab wounds in the head, jaw and shoulder in front of Bangla Academy on Friday night, Azad, also a Bangla professor at Dhaka University, has been undergoing treatment at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) unconscious.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday opened an investigation into the butcher's knife attack on Azad, who has penned over 50 books of poems, novels and essays and remarkable for his outspoken comments, often against fundamentalists.

"Doctors took me to him (Azad) at around 11:30am today and said they removed the ventilation machine," Azad's wife Latifa Kohinoor told The Daily Star last night.

"Doctors told me and I felt too his health has improved a little, but he is still unconscious.

"We are eagerly waiting for tomorrow (Tuesday) morning when doctors have promised to say a definite word on his health," she said.

The CMH authorities did not allow anybody other than Latifa, her daughters Smita and Mouli and son Anannyo to see him at the intensive care unit.

"Doctors aren't making any prognosis of his health now," Smita said, adding, "They've kept him under observation until 5:00am Tuesday."

On the government's claim that Azad regained sense, his relatives said they did not know the reason for what they termed 'spreading such disinformation'.

At 3:00pm yesterday, the CID took the docket of the case from Ramna police which will be probed by its Inspector Kazi Abdul Malek.

The CID team visited the scene where Dr Azad was stabbed on the way to his Fuller Road house on the Dhaka University campus.

The team talked to Suman and Meer Jahan who witnessed the incident and are now in safe custody since Friday night.

They also grilled Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Abu Abbas Bhuiyan, who was placed on a five-day remand on Sunday a day after his arrest with suspected links to the attack, but his parent organisation Awami League dismissed the charge, saying it was aimed at suppressing the opposition.