Charges against Mueen, Ashraf accepted

A tribunal in Dhaka on Thursday accepted charges of wartime offences levelled against two leaders of Al-Badr, a group which assisted then Pakistani occupation army and took part in killing scores of Bangladeshis during the 1971 Liberation War.

According to the tribunal’s probe, Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin acted as the “operation-in-charge” while Ashrafuzzaman Khan as the “chief executor” of the Al-Badr force.

The three-member International Crimes Tribunal-2 led by Justice Obaidul Hassan also issued arrest warrants against the duo on charge of killing 18 intellectuals at the fag end of the Liberation War.

The tribunal asked the police authorities to submit reports on execution of the arrest warrants by May 12.

The prosecution brought 16 charges against the suspects, who were, according to post-independence newspapers, two of the persons most wanted for killing intellectuals. It submitted the formal charges against them on April 25.

According to the probe report, Mueen and Ashrafuzzaman led an Al-Badr force and “directly took part” in the killing of 18 intellectuals between December 10 and 15.

The prosecution submitted the charges against the two suspects together due to their “joint criminal liability” as they had allegedly taken part in the same offences and their target was also the same.