9 face arrest warrants

International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday issued arrest warrants for 10 war crimes accused from Gaibandha and Moulvibazar over crimes committed in the districts during the Liberation War in 1971, prompting police to detain one within hours.

Akmal Ali Talukdar was arrested at his Panchgaon village residence under Moulvibazar's Rajnagar upazila around 1:00pm, investigation officer Hari Devnath told The Daily Star.

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Six of the accused, including a former Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker, Abu Saleh Mohammad Abdul Aziz, are from Gaibandha while the rest from Moulvibazar, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors and investigators declined revealing the remaining names, saying it might prompt them to flee.

Prosecutors Syed Sayedul Haque Sumon and Sheikh Mosfeq Kabir in the Gaibandha and Moulvibazar cases respectively sought the arrests through petitions for "proper probes", saying the accused, being influential locally, were intimidating potential witnesses and that investigators have evidence.

Investigation officer in the Gaibandha case Helal Uddin said he started the probe on October 26 last year and had already found evidence of the involvement of the six in at least three incidents of killings.

Abdul Aziz was the commander of Sundarganj Razakar Bahini while four others were members of the Pakistani occupation army's auxiliary force, he said.

Aziz was also accused in at least 13 criminal cases, including one over the killing of five policemen in 2013 when BNP and Jamaat were carrying out an anti-government movement.

Investigation officer in the Moulvibazar case Hari said after starting the probe on October 12 last year, he found evidence of the involvement of the four in "Panchgaon Genocide" where at least 59 Hindu men were killed and in the killing of two men.

They were also involved with the local Razakar Bahini, he added.