The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Monday issued arrest warrants for five people, including former inspector general of police Mohammad Javed Patwary, over the enforced disappearance and staged killing of seven youths on allegedly suspecting them as extremists in Gazipur in October 2016.
Then additional inspector general of police Mohammad Javed Patwary was the chief of the Special Branch in October 2016 and was promoted to IGP in 2018.
The tribunal, comprising Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder as the head and Justice Md Shofiul Alam Mahmud and retired district judge Md Mohitul Hoque Anam Chawdhury as the members, also directed immediately arresting and producing the former IGP and other accused at the tribunal.
The arrest orders came after an application by prosecutor Gazi Monwar Hossain Tamim, who is handling the cases related to the crimes against humanity.
Tamim did not publicly name all the accused but confirmed that they were involved in arresting the youths from their home towns and killing them in Gazipur.
According to the prosecution, the victims 鈥攎adrassah students and religious-minded youths 鈥� were detained by law enforcement agencies from different parts of the country in October 2016.
They were allegedly kept locked in a rented two-storey house in Gazipur.
Later, they were shot dead in a staged anti-terror raid and were falsely labelled as members of the banned militant group Neo-JMB -- responsible for the Gulshan caf茅 attack on July 1, 2016.
Tamim said that the so-called operation was jointly conducted by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit and a SWAT team of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
The police had posted photos of the seven bodies on their official Facebook page, asking the public for help in identifying them.
Following the post, Azimuddin, father of victim Ibrahim, recognised his son and contacted Gazipur鈥檚 police superintendent Harun-or-Rashid.
Azimuddin told the tribunal in a complaint in August 2024 that Ibrahim, a student of Tamirul Millat Madrassah at Jatrabari in Dhaka, had left home on August 8, 2016 to offer prayers and never returned.
A general diary was filed the next day with the Bangshal police station in Old Dhaka.
Another slain youth was later identified as Saiful Islam Babul, hailing from Chhatak, Sylhet.
The police earlier claimed that the youths were with Neo-JMB leader Faridul Islam Akash, who was also killed in the same raid.
Separately, the Sirajganj police confirmed that Akash was the 25-year-old son of Abu Sayed of Kazipur upazila, who had been missing for over a year.
