Charges sought by Nov 23 against Cox's Bazar 'war criminals'

International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday directed the prosecution to submit within November 23 formal charges, if any, against 19 war crimes accused from Cox's Bazar's Maheshkhali upazila.

The three-member tribunal led by Justice Anwarul Haque set the date after Prosecutor Rana Dasgupta sought for two months' time for preparations.

Rana said the investigation agency provided them the probe report and other documents on Thursday. It said to have found evidence of crimes "committed" by 20 Cox's Bazar men, including one who passed away during investigations, he added.

The prosecutor said the Tribunal-2, which dealt with the case before transferring it to Tribunal-1 on September 3, had issued an arrest warrant against the 19 in two phases in March and May.

The accused are Salamat Ullah Khan, 77; Moulavi Zakaria Sikdar, 78; former BNP lawmaker Md Rashid Miah, 83; Oli Ahmad, 58; Jalal Uddin alias Jalal Ahmed, 63; Moulavi Nurul Islam, 61; Md Saiful alias Sabul, 53; Momtaz Ahmed, 60; Habibur Rahman alias Habib Munshi, 70; Moulavi Amjad Ali, 70; Abdul Majid, 85; Badsha Mia, 73; Osman Gani, 61; Abdus Shukkur, 65; Md Zakaria, 58; Md Jinnah alias Jinnat Ali, 58; Moulavi Jalal, 75; Abdul Aziz, 68; and Moulavi Shamsuddoha, 82.

Of the seven arrestees among the 19, Shamsuddoha died on May 27 while Rashid Miah got released on bail on August 23. Usually, no charge is pressed against the Meanwhile, the tribunal issued an arrest warrant against the 20th accused following a petition of the prosecution.

According to the investigation agency, the accused were mainly involved in politics of Muslim League and Nezam-e-Islami, two anti-liberation political parties. They joined Peace Committee, Razakar and Al-Badr after the Liberation War began.

A Peace Committee was formed on April 30, 1971 in the island thana where the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators, the accused, committed atrocities mainly between May 1 and 6.

"Such a huge scale of atrocities committed within five or six days is very rare," said the agency.

YUSUF FALLS SICK

Mohammad Yusuf, an alleged Razakar from Noakhali, was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital from Dhaka Central Jail yesterday, as he fell sick due to "old age complications", Senior Jail Superintendent Jahangir Kabir told The Daily Star last night.

He was admitted to the medicine ward around 12:15pm, said DMCH sources.

Yusuf, 60, of Sudharam upazila, was arrested on October 5.

He and four others face three charges including one for killing at least 111 people in the upazila during the Liberation War.