War crimes accused Latif dies in DMCH

Abdul Latif Talukdar, an alleged Razakar from Bagerhat who was facing seven war crime charges along with two other accused, died from old age complications in Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday.

Latif, who was shifted to DMCH on July 23 from Dhaka Central Jail, died around 3:00am yesterday, said Sentu Chandra Das, an assistant sub-inspector of the hospital's police outpost.

After autopsy, his body was handed over to his son, the hospital and jail sources said.

Syed Sayedul Haque Sumon, the conducting

prosecutor of the case, told The Daily Star that they would formally inform the tribunal about Latif's death today.

The court usually declares a case closed if the accused dies during trial, he said.

But in this case, Latif was one of the three accused and the International Crimes Tribunal-1 kept the verdict waiting after completion of all proceedings, he said.

“So the status of the case is different and now the tribunal will decide in this regard,” he added.

Latif's lawyer Sarwar Hossain said the case would be closed after his client's death.

On June 11, 2014, police arrested the 68-year-old Latif in his home after the tribunal issued an arrest warrant against him and Sheikh Sirajul Haque alias Siraj Master and Khan Akram Hossain over crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War.

On November 5, 2014, ICT-1 indicted the three on seven charges of which four were brought against Sirajul alone, two against all of them for killing 47 people and one against Akram and Latif for killing a person. The accused, however, pleaded “not guilty” to the wartime offences.

Latif, son of Zender Ali Talukder of Solarkola village in Bagerhat's Kachua upazila, was elected a member of Raripara Union Council in the upazila in 1985 and was a local Jatiya Party leader, the indictment order says.

In 1990, he joined Awami League and since then he had been an AL activist, it mentions.