ICT-2 chair questions pace of July uprising cases

The chairman of International Crimes Tribunal-2, Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury, yesterday asked the prosecution whether they were going slow in handling cases filed over crimes committed during last year's July uprising.

During a court session, he asked prosecutor Abdus Sobhan Tarafder, "Mr Tarafder, are you going slow?" In response, Tarafder, the senior-most among the prosecutors present at the tribunal, replied, "No, no. If we were moving slowly, then the frequency of those cases wouldn't have been scheduled so early. The earlier deadline was set for July 10, and today [yesterday] was already scheduled for this case."

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Justice Chowdhury then remarked, "But, you are not coming up with new cases..."

Meanwhile, the tribunal directed relevant jail authorities to produce two accused before the court on July 22 in connection with the case filed over the killing of Abu Sayed, a student of Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur. The two accused are Rafiul Hasan and Md Anowar Parvej.

It also ordered the publication of notices in two newspapers for 24 accused on the run, asking them to appear before the court on July 22 in the same case.

The absconding accused include BRUR former vice-chancellor Professor Hasibur Rashid and former Rangpur Metropolitan Police commissioner Md Moniruzzaman.

Abu Sayed was shot dead on July 16 last year in Rangpur during a student-led protest against the quota system in government jobs.

In another development, the tribunal set July 16 for submitting a report on eight fugitives in the case filed over the shooting of six student protesters, five of whom were killed and burned, while the sixth was reportedly set on fire while still alive, in Ashulia on August 5 last year. Eight accused have so far been arrested.