The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Monday granted permission to interrogate three former Rapid Action Battalion officers — currently on death row in the 2014 Narayanganj seven-murder case — in connection with enforced disappearance allegations against their former superior officer, Ziaul Ahsan.
The three-member tribunal, comprising Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, Justice Md Shofiul Alam Mahmood, and retired judge
Md Mohitul Hoque Anam Chawdhury, issued the order after hearing the prosecution’s application.
Chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam told reporters that the three —dismissed Lieutenant Colonel Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, then RAB commander in Narayanganj, dismissed Major Arif Hossain, and dismissed Lieutenant Commander MM Masud Rana — may hold crucial information on crimes allegedly committed by Ziaul Ahsan.
Zia, who was additional director general of the RAB during the abduction and murders of the seven people, is currently in custody and faces hundreds of allegations related to enforced disappearance during the Awami League’s rule.
All the allegations are now under investigation by the tribunal’s investigation agency.
The tribunal’s investigation agency, Tajul Islam added, has the legal authority to interrogate any individual necessary for the investigation.
Earlier in the day, the same tribunal asked for the case records related to a 2016 police raid in Mirpur’s Jahajbari, where nine young men were shot dead in what was claimed to be an anti-militancy operation.
The tribunal directed the investigator to submit the original case docket for review.
According to prosecutors, the operation was a staged encounter and the victims — labelled as Neo-JMB militants — had no militant links.
The ICT prosecution alleges that the victims had been in police custody for a prolonged period and were executed at close range, not killed in a gunfight as claimed by law enforcement.
Police had filed a case at the time, as they did in other alleged ‘crossfire’ incidents.
The tribunal’s investigation agency now needs the original police case records to properly investigate the exta-judicial killings under the ICT’s jurisdiction.
Following the raid, then inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Haque visited the scene and stated that those killed were members of the banned outfit Neo-Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB).
Now, AKM Shahidul Haque, former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah, and former DMP assistant commissioner (Mirpur Zone) Jasim Uddin Mollah face charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the killings.
They have been shown arrested in the case linked to the alleged staged raid and extrajudicial executions.
