ICT orders to produce Ziaul Ahsan Aug 27

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday ordered former Maj Gen (relieved) Ziaul Ahsan to be produced before it in a crimes against humanity case over the alleged enforced disappearance of BNP leader and now Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed in 2015.

The tribunal fixed August 27 for the next hearing.

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Salahuddin was picked up from Uttara on March 10, 2015, and was later found in Shillong, India. He returned to Bangladesh on August 11, 2024, and filed a complaint with the tribunal on June 2 last year, accusing ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and six others, including Ziaul, over his disappearance.

Meanwhile, ICT-2 yesterday showed Ziaul and dismissed Lt Col Tareque Sayeed Mohammad arrested in a case over the alleged extrajudicial killing of three BNP leaders in Lakshmipur and the disappearance of two others, including former MP Saiful Islam Hiru, in Laksam, Cumilla, in 2013.

The tribunal fixed September 30 for the next hearing after prosecutors sought their detention.

Tareque, then commander of Rab-11, was earlier sentenced to death along with 25 others for the 2014 Narayanganj seven murders.

ICT-1 also issued a warrant for former Rab ADG (operations) Col Abdullah Al Momen to be produced before it on August 27 in a case over the alleged enforced disappearance of student Md Zakir Hossain from Adabor.

Momen is already in jail in a case over the TFI Cell.

‘Ziaul ordered staged killings’

Meanwhile, former Rab-3 commanding officer Md Rafiqul Islam testified before ICT-1 that three people had been taken to separate locations in Gazipur on July 11, 2011, with their hands and faces or eyes tied, and killed in staged “anti-terrorism operations” on Ziaul’s orders.

Rafiqul, the seventh prosecution witness in the case, also said Ziaul had shot one of the men in the head and pushed him into the water from a bridge in Uttara.

Rafiqul also said at a second bridge, after Maj Sazzadul had refused Ziaul’s order to kill another detainee, he heard Ziaul ask him to return to his vehicle, followed by a gunshot.

At a third location, a gunshot followed after another blindfolded, handcuffed man had been taken away.

Maj Tariqul later told him that Ziaul had ordered the killing, but two men accompanying Ziaul carried it out.

Rafiqul said he later learnt from newspapers that two or three bodies had been recovered in Joydebpur.

During cross-examination, Ziaul’s counsel accused Rafiqul of giving false testimony out of vengeance as Ziaul had investigated allegations against Rafiqul following a Rab HQ order and found them authentic.

The defence alleged that Rafiqul had sold 80 sacks of potatoes in Karwan Bazar and distributed 460 sarees among Rab members after Rab-3 seized a truckload of potatoes and Indian sarees in Fulbaria on August 15, 2011.

Rafiqul said he knew nothing about the seizure or complaint, adding that he also did not know whether Army Headquarters later sought his statement following Ziaul’s investigation report.

Ziaul faces allegations of orchestrating the enforced disappearance and murder of 104 people between 2010 and 2013, besides several other cases over alleged disappearances and extrajudicial killings.