Proof found against JP MP Hannan, son

The investigation agency of the International Crimes Tribunal has found evidence of wartime crimes allegedly committed by Jatiya Party lawmaker MA Hannan, his son and six others, investigators said.

“We will brief the media tomorrow [today] on the outcome of the investigation and the roles the accused played in committing the crimes in 1971,” Abdul Hannan Khan, coordinator of the investigation agency, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The accused were “involved” in five incidents of crimes involving torture, looting, killings and mass killings during the nine-month-long war, Motiur Rahman, investigation officer of the case, added.

Agency coordinator Hannan Khan said they would suggest that the prosecution bring charges of superior responsibility against lawmaker Hannan since he, as the general secretary of Mymensingh district Peace Committee, “led and directed” his associates to commit war crimes.

The JP leader is the second incumbent lawmaker arrested in connection with war crimes committed during the War. Executed war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury was arrested in December 2010 when he was a lawmaker of BNP, the then opposition in parliament.

Currently, Jatiya Party is the main opposition in parliament and three of its lawmakers are members of the cabinet of the Awami League-led government. JP Chairman HM Ershad himself is the special adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Apart from Hannan, 80, who is a lawmaker from Trishal (Mymensingh-7 constituency) and presidium member of JP, other accused of the case are his son Rafique Sajjad, 62, Khandakar Golam Sabbir Ahmed, 69, Mizanur Rahman Mintu, 63, Hormuj Ali, 73, Mohammad Abdus Sattar, 64, Mohammad Fakruzzaman, 61, and Khandakar Golam Rabbani, 63.

Of the eight, Sattar, Fakruzzaman and Rabbani are fugitives, while the rest including Hannan were arrested on October 1 last year and are now behind bars.

Hannan and the four other detainees denied the allegations.

ALLEGED ROLE OF HANNAN AND OTHERS

In May last year, Rahima Khatun, widow of martyred freedom fighter Abdur Rahman of Trishal, filed a case against three people, including Hannan, for killing her husband in 1971. The two other accused in the case were Fakruzzaman and Rabbani.

After recording the complaint, a Mymensingh court sent the case to the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka for necessary action. Based on Rahima's case, the investigation agency started a probe in July last year, insiders said.

Apart from the three, the investigators found evidence of involvement of another five people in the wartime crimes, they added.

Sanaul Huq, agency's co-coordinator, said Hannan was a top leader of Mymensingh Muslim League, a party which had taken a stance against Bangladesh's liberation, and general secretary of Mymensingh Peace Committee, an anti-liberation organisation in 1971.

When people were fighting the Pakistan army and their local collaborators, Hannan took part in a so-called by-elections held in 1971 and became a member of the national assembly of Pakistan, he said.

Sanaul further said Hannan and his son equipped with arms used to travel in a Pakistan-flag mounted open jeep during the war and “killed many people.”

Even the house of Hannan in Mymensingh was used as an arsenal for Razakars, an auxiliary force of the Pakistan army, he said, adding that the other accused of the case were Hannan's “close aides” in 1971 who committed the crimes.

The senior investigator said Hannan regularly visited the torture camps set up at Mymensingh District Council Rest House and East Pakistan Agricultural University, which later been turned into Bangladesh Agricultural University campus, during the war and used to issue instructions for the “annihilation” of pro-liberation people detained there.

After the war, Hannan fled but resumed his political career after joining HM Ershad's Jatiya Party in the 1980s, he said.