Int’l Crimes Tribunal officials in constant fear of accident
Although the old High Court buildings were declared “risky” more than a year ago, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) and its Chief Prosecutor’s Office have been operating their daily proceedings there, exposing hundreds of people to serious risk of accident.
A three-member committee of Public Works Department (PWD) had declared the buildings “risky” in March last year, but the department notified the matter to the tribunal’s authorities only recently.
With the information coming to light, panic has gripped people working at the tribunal. A portion of plaster from the buildings’ ceiling collapsed around 4pm yesterday, intensifying their fear.
“An accident may happen anytime. We are in continuous fear of life,” a staffer told this correspondent yesterday, wishing anonymity.
More than 200 people are working at two blocks of the building complex regularly, and the number increases at the time of daily proceedings when any accused, their family members, witnesses, journalists and visitors go there.
The government set up ICT-1 in March 2010 and ICT-2 in March 2012 in the east block of the old High Court building, and later allotted the west block to the chief prosecutor’s office.
According to documents, the building -- opposite Curzon Hall of Dhaka University -- was constructed in early 20th century.
Portions of ceilings or false ceilings of two blocks of the building had collapsed at least six times since June 2012. Tribunal authorities and the Chief Prosecutor’s Office wrote to the authorities on several occasions in this regard.
Law Minister Anisul Huq also visited the tribunal in July 2016 after a portion of false ceiling of Chief Prosecutor’s Office collapsed, and said the first floor will be relocated and the repair work will be done thereafter. But nothing happened, two prosecutors said.
The law minister could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
PWD DECLARED THE BUILDING RISKY IN MARCH 2018
PWD formed a three-member committee after portion of the ceiling at the east block of the old High Court building collapsed on March 12 last year.
The committee -- led by Sohel Raman, superintendent engineer (Design Circle-1), in their report submitted on March 18, 2018 -- said they found cracks on the wall of the building and several portions of plaster of ceilings and walls already collapsed.
Considering all aspects, the committee declared the building “risky”. But the tribunal authorities did not know about the development, sources said. At that time, PWD repaired the damaged portion only.
“We had no idea about the 2018 report. We learnt about it [declaration as risky building] recently from a letter [of PWD],” Ali Hider, the tribunal’s registrar and spokesperson, said.
On July 14, ICT-1 could not record testimonies of witnesses as a leaking ceiling damaged the computer network of the special court. On the same day, tribunal registrar Ali Hider wrote to the chief engineer of PWD to take steps to avoid a “possible accident”, tribunal sources said.
The same day, several PWD engineers visited the tribunal and Khaled Hossain, superintendent engineer (Dhaka Public Works Circle-2), submitted a report to the additional chief engineer (Dhaka Metropolitan Zone) on July 16.
In his letter, Khaled mentioned about the opinion of the previous committee and recommended for retrofitting or restoration of the buildings.
Khaled sent a copy of the letter to the tribunal registrar, and through a letter the tribunal’s authorities came to know about the risk, sources said.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Shohel Rahman said he was not aware whether any action or step was taken on the basis of their report.
On July 23, he once again visited the tribunal.
“The building needs retrofitting as soon as possible. We are now assessing how much time it would take for the retrofitting,” he said, adding that he was expected to submit the assessment report within two to three days.
After that, field office of PWD will start necessary procedure, he added.
“WE ARE WORKING PUTTING OUR LIFE AT RISK”
Senior Prosecutor Zeyad Al Malum said they have sent several letters for repair and renovation of the building but to no avail.
“We are working putting our lives at risk,” he told The Daily Star yesterday, adding, “We didn’t talk about the matter to media on several occasions. But, this is a very uncomfortable situation for us.”
He demanded that the authorities take immediate action for repairing and renovating the buildings.
Contacted, Public Works Minister SM Rezaul Karim said he will take necessary action after looking into the matter.
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