The prosecution of the International Crimes Tribunals on Sunday filed formal charges against Awami League joint general secretary and former lawmaker Mahbubul Alam Hanif and three other party leaders for their alleged superior command responsibilities in killing six protesters and committing other crimes against humanity in Kushtia during the July uprising.
The other accused are Kushtia district Awami League president Md Sadar Uddin Khan, general secretary Md Ali Asgar Ali, and Kushtia town Awami League general secretary Ataur Rahman Ata.
Prosecutor Mizanul Islam submitted the charges before the three-member ICT-2 headed by Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury.
The tribunal set Monday to decide whether it would take cognisance of the three charges. All four accused are still in hiding.
According to the first charge, Hanif and the three leaders met at the Kushtia Awami League office on July 27, 2024, and allegedly ordered their followers to use 鈥榤aximum force鈥� against protesters, branding them as criminals.
The second charge states that Hanif, along with Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, made inflammatory remarks at a press conference at the party president鈥檚 political office in Dhanmondi on July 15, 2024.
They allegedly claimed that the Awami League and Chhatra League were capable of containing the student movement and described the protesters as members of Jamaat-e-Islami, criminals, and communal forces.
The statements were intended to justify the violence, the prosecution claimed.
The third charge alleged that, on August 5, 2024, Hanif and the three Kushtia leaders coordinated an attack on unarmed protesters, during which party activists, with police support, opened fire.
Between 1:30pm and 4:00pm that day, six people were shot dead in separate incidents across Kushtia. The victims were identified as labourer Ashraful Islam, trader Babul Farazi, job holder Yunus, and students Abdullah Al Mustakin and Md Usama, and Suruz Ali Babu.
The victims were participating in or supporting the student-led 鈥楳arch to Dhaka鈥� programme.
This is the seventh such case now pending before the two International Crimes Tribunals reconstituted in September 2024 under the interim government to try offences committed during the mass uprising in July and August in 2024.
Six other鈥� cases include鈥攐ne involving deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun over their superior command responsibilities to the July atrocities across the country, second one against former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Habibur Rahman and seven other police personnel over Chankharpool鈥檚 murders, third one against former Begum Rokeya University vice-chancellor Hasibur Rashid and 17 others over the university student Abu Sayeed鈥檚 murder, fourth one against former Savar lawmaker Saiful Islam and 17 others over killings of six protesters in shooting and burning them at Ashulia, fifth one against former DMP commissioner Habib and four other police personnel, and the remaining one against former information minister Hasanul Haq Inu over killing six people in Kushtia.
On September 25, the tribunal received eight counts of crimes against humanity charges against detained Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal鈥揓asod president Hasanul Haq Inu for his alleged command responsibility over the violent crackdown in Kushtia and other areas. Those charges also include the killing of the six protesters.