A Dhaka court yesterday directed the investigation officer (IO) to submit probe report by March 30 on a case filed against Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and eight other people for mass-murdering 345 people during the liberation war.
Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Al-Mamun passed the order as IO Sub-Inspector GM Hamidur Rahman failed to turn in the report to the court yesterday.
The other accused are Jamaat assistant secretary generals Mohammad Abdul Quader Molla and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, the party's central leader and former Islami Chhatra Sangha president Sardar Abdul Salam, activist Khawza Ashim (dead), Akhter 'Gunda', Newaz and Doma. The last three are non-Bangalis who later fled to Pakistan.
On January 24, Mohammad Amir Hossain Mollah, a wounded freedom fighter and resident of Duaripara in the capital's Pallabi neighbourhood, filed the case with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka for the felonies.
Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Emran Hossain Chowdhury later recorded the complainant's statement and directed the officer-in-charge (OC) of Pallabi Police Station to register the murder case as a first information report (FIR).
The complainant stated that the accused killed the people in the capital's Mirpur area on April 24 and December 18 in 1971, adding that the victims included 21 of his relatives, one colleague, 43 Mirpur residents and 280 others who hailed from different areas of the country.
The plaintiff said 60-70 other unidentified non-Bangalis also took part in the bloodbath.