Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) on Monday issued arrest warrants against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 11 others, including former military generals and an ex-police chief, for their alleged role in incidents of enforced disappearances.
This was the second arrest warrant by the ICT against Hasina, who fled to India after her Awami League regime’s toppling following unprecedented anti-government protests in August last year. The tribunal has so far recorded three cases against her.
“Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mojumdar, chairman of the tribunal, issued the arrest warrant after hearing a prosecution plea, an ICT official said.
The Inspector General of Police was ordered to arrest the twelve people, including Hasina, and produce them before the tribunal on February 12 in the case filed over complaints of enforced disappearances of several hundred people.
The deposed premier’s then-defence adviser Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique and former IGP Benazir Ahmed are among those named in the case. While Siddique is currently under custody, Ahmed is believed to be on the run.
ICT Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam did not disclose the names of most of the accused in the interest of investigations and their arrest.
The next hearing for this case is also scheduled for February 12. The tribunal has instructed that the investigation report be submitted on that day if completed, Islam later told reporters.
He, however, said if the investigation report could not be submitted by then, the law enforcement agencies would have to provide a progress report on the arrests.
Islam told the tribunal that the ousted regime had established a culture of enforced disappearances under state sponsorship.
During former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s near-16-year uninterrupted rule, Bangladesh grappled with the crime of enforced disappearance – a state-sanctioned practice carried out by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, often targeting individuals with opposition ties.
Following the collapse of her government on August 5th last year, the newly-installed interim administration set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the cases. The special prosecutor at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) began preparing charges, too.
In the months that followed, the government revoked the passports of 42 law enforcement officers for their alleged roles in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. The Ministry of Home Affairs imposed travel bans on 11 officers from the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), 15 from RAB, six from the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit (CTTC) and Detective Branch (DB) of the police, and 10 from the army. In January, the ICT issued arrest warrants against several of these officials.
Despite these measures, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances soon discovered a major setback: a number of the accused had managed to flee the country.
“We have a lot of evidence [of such cases],” says Nur Khan Liton, human rights advocate and a member of the commission.
The Commission stated that at least 10 suspects, ranging from warrant officers to top generals, had absconded.
These security force officers are Lieutenant General Molla Fazle Akbar, Major General Sheikh Mamun Khaled, Lieutenant General Md. Akbar Hossain, Major General Md. Saiful Abedin, Major General Md. Saiful Alam, Major General Ahmed Tabrez Shams Chowdhury, Major General Hamidul Haque, Colonel Mahadi Hasan, Warrant Officer Md. Ziaur Rahman and Warrant Officer Imrul Kayes.
The first seven of them served as the DGFI chief between 2009 and 2024 – a period coinciding with Hasina’s tenure.
How these individuals managed to escape, despite court orders and travel restrictions, remains a mystery.
“We have a huge land border with India. It is possible to make a crossing there. Then we have also learned about crossing immigration at the airport with the internet turned off,” Khan says. “We have informed the Chief Adviser about this. We also had these questions for the Army Chief.”
Khan noted that poor enforcement of official directives enabled the accused to slip away. “If the government or various forces had been vigilant in this regard, it would have been possible to prevent [these escapes]. We are certain that they were in the country when the travel ban was imposed.”
The chief prosecutor alleged that those involved in carrying out these disappearances were rewarded. He added that agencies like the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the police’s Detective Branch (DB), the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) were most frequently used for the purpose.
“Over the past 15 years, a culture of fear was established in Bangladesh through enforced disappearances and crossfires. Thousands of people were abducted by various forces, either in plainclothes or in uniform. Most of them never returned, Islam told journalists.
Last month, Dhaka officially sought Hasina’s extradition from India. While New Delhi acknowledged the receipt of the letter, it refrained from commenting on it.
The ICT issued the first arrest warrant against the ex-premier on October 17 on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the July-August protests and uprising.
After the fall of the Awami League government, at least 60 cases or complaints of enforced disappearances, killings, genocide, and crimes against humanity were lodged at the ICT, accusing Hasina, leaders of her party and its allies, and senior officials of different law enforcement agencies.
A commission formed by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’s interim government last month submitted its provisional report alleging the involvement of Hasina, her officials and neighbouring India in incidents of enforced disappearance.
The commission said it recorded 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances and so far examined 758, of which 27 per cent of the victims never returned.
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