Dhaka/New Delhi, Oct 21 (PTI): Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal prosecution team on Tuesday warned the army that 15 of their serving officers will be declared “fugitives” unless they were produced in court on Wednesday.
“If they fail to appear or are not produced tomorrow, the tribunal will set a new date, and notices with their summons will be published in two newspapers. Non-appearance on that date would lead to them being declared absconding,” ICT-BD Prosecutor Gazi MH Tamim told reporters.
He said the tribunal earlier issued arrest warrants against several former and current officers and the police inspector general was ordered to execute that order while “copies of the warrants were also sent to the heads of the (armed) forces concerned”.
“Under the International Crimes Tribunal Act, the accused officers can either appear voluntarily or be arrested by the law enforcers and brought to the tribunal,” Tamim said.
The ICT-BD issued arrest warrants against 16 serving army officers and 14 others, including deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, on October 8 for their alleged role in the “enforced disappearances or abduction and torture of political dissidents” during the past Awami League regime.
The army in a media briefing on October 11 said they took into “military custody” 15 of the 16 officers soon after ICT-BD issued arrest warrants.
However, it declined to have received any copy of any warrant amid anxious speculations over their trial in a civil court under the ICT-BD Act instead of court marshal under the Army Act.
ICT-BD Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam demanded their court appearance for two consecutive days after the army announcement but the military ignored the call.
The government, meanwhile, declared a building inside the Dhaka Cantonment as a makeshift “prison” without detailing its purpose while a sense of unease visibly gripped Bangladesh over their trial.
Bangladesh Army’s adjutant general Major General Mohammad Hakimuzzaman told during the October 11 press conference that 16 of their officers were asked to report to army headquarters and 15 of them responded and they were kept in military custody.
“We acted even before receiving warrants,” Hakimuzzaman said without detailing if they would be produced before the ICT-BD but added that the Army Act does not apply to nine retired officers and police might act upon the warrant.
He said the 16th serving officer, a major general who earlier served as the deposed premier’s military secretary, went into hiding but steps were taken to prevent his departure abroad.
Several former military officers and security analysts said the serving officer’s production in a civil court under an amended ICT-BD Act instead of army law could affect the morale of the armed forces personnel.
Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which emerged as the main party in the political landscape, last week cautioned interim government chief Muhammad Yunus against antagonising the army.
“We (BNP) want you to maintain a good relation with the armed forces… we don’t want to draw any risk as we will not be able to afford it,” BNP’s standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed told Yunus during a meeting with political parties.
He said the BNP did not want to see the creation of any “imbalance in the armed forces” as “we cannot afford it at this moment” in an oblique reference to planned general elections in February next year.
A violent student-led street campaign dubbed as July Uprising ousted the Awami League government on August 5, 2024 when Hasina left for India and three days later Yunus flew in from Paris and took charge of the interim government.
Yunus’s administration amended the ICT-BD law to try the leaders of the past regime, including Hasina, appointing Tajul Islam as its chief prosecutor.
The ICT-BD was formed by the past government to try hardened collaborators of the Pakistani troops during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War, when Tajul Islam appeared as a key-lawyer to defend the accused.
Most Awami League leaders and key figures of the past government are now in jail or on the run at home and abroad but its activists and supporters are trying to make visible their presence by staging flash street marches in Dhaka and elsewhere.
Several such flash marches were held in Dhaka streets on Tuesday as well when police arrested at least six activists. PTI AR GSP GSP
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
