Ex-MP Sakhawat held as war crimes suspect

Police arrested war crimes suspect former BNP and Jamaat lawmaker Mawlana Sakhawat Hossain at Uttar Khan in Dhaka yesterday evening.

Sakhawat, 70, and former MP of Jessore-6 (Keshabpur) constituency, went into hiding for months.

Law enforcers arrested him at the ground floor of a house in Masterpara of Uttar Khan around 6:00pm, Yunus Ali, officer-in-charge of Uttar Khan Police Station, told The Daily Star.

An investigation agency assigned to probe the crimes against humanity committed in 1971 has received a number of allegations of murder, mass killing and other war crimes against Sakhawat.

The probe that started on April 1, 2012, was half way through and the report of the investigation would be submitted to the prosecution once it was done, sources said.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 issued a warrant of arrest against him on October 29 following a petition by the prosecution.

Abdur Razzaque Khan, investigation officer of the case, told The Daily Star the probe against the suspect was now ongoing and they had gathered evidence of his “involvement” in wartime crimes.

“We are getting information of his alleged involvement in mass killing, rape, loot and other crimes,” he added.

OC Yunus Ali said they raided the building on information and arrested Sakhawat, who had been living there with his wife Mahmuda Khatun for about 10 days.

The war crimes suspect had earlier lived at Uttara Sector-6 but changed the place, as people started to know about his whereabouts, the OC added.

Sakhawat's candidature in Jessore-6 constituency was cancelled over war crimes allegations after Jatiya Party had picked him for the January 5 parliamentary polls.

Locals and sources in the war crimes probe body say that Sakhawat was a central committee member of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the student body of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971.

He joined the Razakar force during the Liberation War and was the in-charge of Hisladanga Razakar camp of Keshabpur, they allege.

After independence, Sakhawat went into hiding and resurfaced in 1986 as a local leader of Jamaat.

He contested the 1991 parliamentary polls with Jamaat ticket in Jessore-6 and was elected MP.

Later, he joined BNP and became a lawmaker again in the short-lived parliament formed through the February 15, 1996, elections. When BNP and Jamaat formed an alliance before the 2001 elections, he failed to secure nomination and contested the poll as an independent candidate.

He was expelled from BNP in connection with failing to maintain party discipline and he joined Jatiya Party afterwards.