Charges pressed against Jamalpur 'Al-Badr men'

Prosecution today pressed five charges against eight war crimes suspects of Jamalpur for their alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.

The charges include killing, torture and confinement.

All the eight suspects were involved with the Al-Badr, an anti-liberation force particularly responsible for the decimation of the country's intellectuals, according to the prosecution.

They were involved with the murders of several thousand people and destruction of numerous houses across Jamalpur in 1971, the prosecution said.

After the formal charges were submitted, International Crimes Tribunal-2 led by Justice Obaidul Hassan fixed Tuesday to decide whether it would accept the charges against them.

Prosecutor Tapos Kanti Baul submitted the charges to the ICT registrar office.

On March 2, law enforcers arrested two of the eight war crimes suspects three hours after the ICT-2 issued arrest warrants against the eight.

The detainees are Adv Shamsul Haque, 75, and AKM Yusuf Ali, 83, who contested the 1970’s national election from Jamaat-e-Islami for the posts of member of provincial assembly and member of national assembly respectively.

The other accused -- Ashraf Hossain, 64, Prof Sharif Ahammed, 71, Abdul Mannan, 66, Abdul Bari, 62, Harun, 58, and Abul Hashem, 65, -- are absconding. They were involved in Islami Chhatra Sangho and Al-Badr, the investigators said.

Meanwhile, the tribunal asked prosecution to submit charges, if there is any, on May 21 against three two Cox’s Bazar war crimes suspects -- Md Rashid, 84, Salamat Ullah Khan, 80 and Moulavi  Jakaria. 

The court came up with the order after the prosecutor Rana Dasgupta submitted a progress report and sought more time to press formal charges against them.