The police could arrest only one suspect, out of 12 individuals, against whom the International Crimes Tribunal in the first phase issued warrants of arrest for their alleged involvement in incidents of enforced disappearance during the Awami League regime in the past 15 years.
The hearing of the case is scheduled for today and only former Major General Ziaul Ahsan, also a former director general of the National Telecommunication National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre, was shown arrested in the case.
Ziaul was arrested on August 16, 2024 in a murder case and was later shown arrested in the enforced disappearance case, officials said.
The ICT issued warrants of arrest against the 12 suspects on January 6.
Besides Ziaul, the other 11 accused include ousted prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, her former security and defence adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed, retired lieutenant colonel Moksurul Haque and former CTTC chief and deputy inspector general of police Md Asaduzzaman.
Five former directors general of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence 鈥� retired Lieutenant General Md Akbar Hossain, retired Major General Md Saiful Abedin, retired Lieutenant General Md Saiful Alam, retired Lieutenant General Ahmed Tabrez Shams Chowdhury and retired Major General Hamidul Huq and former Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Bureau director retired Major General Mohammad Towhid-ul-Islam are also facing arrest warrants issued by the ICT on January 6.
鈥業t is the duty of the police to arrest them as the court issued warrants to arrest them,鈥� ICT chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam told 抖阴精品.
Besides Ziaul, two more former police officers 鈥� former superintendent of police Mohiuddin Faruqi and additional superintendent of police Alep Uddin 鈥� were so far arrested in cases of enforced disappearances, he said.
He said that they were preparing a list of other accused people in enforced disappearing cases. 聽聽
Additional inspector general of police for crimes and operations (current charge) Md Akram Hossain said that he knew nothing about the arrest warrant.
He declined to make any comment about the issue.
The members of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance said that five former DGFI directors general and former CTIB director were accused of command responsibility over the DGFI headquarters鈥� Joint Interrogation Cell, popularly known as Aynaghar.
According to two commission members, four former DGFI chiefs were in the Dhaka cantonment till the issuance of the warrants of arrest and former DGFI chief Md Saiful Abedin was now in the United States.
They claimed that four former DGFI DGs and a former CTIB director were still staying in the country.
Asked for comments about the four former DGFI DGs staying in the cantonment till the issuance of the ICT arrest warrant, the Inter Services Public Relation Directorate did not make any comment in this connection although they were approached several times in the past two weeks over the telephone.
One of the commission members said that the trial process would be hampered if the accused former Army officers were not arrested.
Asked whether it would affect the investigation or the trial process if the former army officials were not arrested, ICT chief prosecutor Tajul said, 鈥榃e think that the court or law is above all. It is the duty of the law enforcement agencies to show respect to the court鈥檚 order.鈥�
According to the enforced disappearance commission, Md Akbar Hossain served as the DGFI DG from August 8, 2013 to February 1, 2017, Md Saiful Abedin from February 2, 2017 to March 4, 2020, Md Saiful Alam from March 5, 2020 to July 27, 2021, Ahmed Tabrez Shams Chowdhury from July 28, 2021 to November 2, 2022 and Hamidul Huq served as the DGFI DG from November 3, 2022 to August 5, 2024.
Mohammad Towhid-ul-Islam served as the director of the CTIB from November 2014 to August 2018.
On December 14, 2024, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance in its first interim report submitted to the interim government found prima facie involvement of the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and some high-ranking officials of security forces and her government in enforced disappearances.
The government formed the commission after it had taken office on August 8, 2024, three days after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.
The commission said that they recorded 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances, while 758 complaints were scrutinised.
The commission estimates the number of enforced disappearances in the country would cross 3,500.
