Bangladesh’s International Criminal Court (ICT) on Sunday summoned 20 people, including former army chief Ziaul Ahsan, 10 former ministers and two advisers to the country’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The ICT has ordered all persons to appear next month in connection with the crime against the alleged massacre during the July-August insurgency.
According to Bangladesh’s interim government, at least 753 people were killed and thousands injured during the insurgency, which the ICT prosecution team and the interim government have called crimes against humanity and genocide. So far, the investigation agency ICT and the prosecution team have filed more than 60 complaints of crimes against humanity and genocide against Hasina and her party leaders.
Subpoenas are also sent to two advisors of the former prime minister
According to The Daily Star newspaper, on November 18 the ICT ordered the authorities concerned to present 20 people, including 10 former ministers and two advisors of former Prime Minister Hasina.
The order was issued by a three-member ITC bench headed by Justice MD Golam Murtuza Majumdar on the request of Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam.
Among the accused are former ministers Farooq Khan, Rashid Khan Menon, Hasanul Haq Inu, Junaid Ahmed Palak, Abdur Razzaq, Shahjahan Khan, Kamal Ahmed Majumdar and Ghulam Dastagir Ghazi. According to the Dhaka Tribune newspaper report, the names of former aides of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Taufiq-e-Ilahi and Salman F. Rahman, former army chief Ahsan, former judge Shamsuddin Chaudhary Manik and the Former Home Minister Jahangir Alam.
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Arrest warrants were previously issued for 45 people.
On October 17, the court issued arrest warrants for Hasina and her son Wajid Joy and 45 others, including several former cabinet members.
Let us tell you that ICT was set up in March 2010 by the Hasina-led Awami League government to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against humanity committed during the liberation war of 1971. It later formed ICT-2 and hanged at least six BNP leaders from Jamaat-e-Islami and Khaleda Zia, Hasina’s rival, following the verdicts of two courts. The court has been inactive since mid-June following the retirement of its president.
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We tell you that after the violent protests carried out by students, the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, resigned from the country on August 5 and took refuge in India. Subsequently, on August 8, an interim government was formed under the leadership of Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus. Recently, the interim government headed by Mohammad Yunus reconstituted the court on October 12.
