Thirteen Bangladesh Army officers have been produced before the International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) in Dhaka in two cases over enforced disappearances and torture at the Taskforce for Interrogation (TFI) Cell and the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) during the tenure of the previous Awami League government. The accused officers are: Md Jahangir Alam, Tofayel Mostafa Sarwar, Md Qamrul Hasan, Md Mahabub Alam, KM Azad, Abdullah Al Momen, Md Moshiur Rahman Jewel, Saiful Islam Suman, Md Sarwar Bin Qashem, Anwar Latif Khan, Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossain, Md Mahbubur Rahman Siddiqui and Ahmed Tanvir Mazhar Siddiqui.
They were brought in plainclothes to the tribunal around 10:00 am in a specialised prison van, amid tight security in and around the court premises. One by one, the officers were led down from the olive-coloured vehicle and escorted to the tribunal lockup on the ground floor of the main building.
A heavy deployment of law enforcement — including police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Armed Police Battalion (APBN) — was positioned in the area surrounding the tribunal.
On October 22, ICT-1 had ordered the 13 accused, along with two other army officers — Mohammad Redwanul Islam and Rafat Bin Alam, who are charged in a separate crimes against humanity case — to be sent to jail.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, also directed that notices be published in one English and one Bengali newspaper, summoning fugitive accused in the three cases to appear before the court.
Earlier, on October 8, ICT-1 took cognisance of charges against 30 accused, including ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, in two cases relating to enforced disappearances and torture.
In one of those cases, the prosecution brought five charges against 13 people, including Sheikh Hasina and her former security and defence adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddique, over alleged crimes committed at the JIC.
The other accused in the JIC case are: Md Akbar Hossain, Md Saiful Abedin, Md Saiful Alam, Md Tabrej Shams Chowdhury, Hamidul Haque, Mohammad Touhidul Islam, Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossain, Kabir Ahmed, Md Mahbubur Rahman Siddiqui, Ahmed Tanvir Mazhar Siddiqui and Mokhchurul Haque.
In a separate case, five additional charges were framed against 17 people, including Sheikh Hasina and Tarique Ahmed Siddique, over alleged crimes committed at the TFI Cell.
The remaining accused in the TFI case are: former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed, M Khurshid Hossain, Barrister Md Harun Ur Rashid, Anwar Latif Khan, Md Jahangir Alam, Tofayel Mostafa Sarwar, KM Azad, Md Qamrul Hasan, Md Mahabub Alam, Abdullah Al Momen, Md Sarwar Bin Qashem, Md Khairul Islam, Md Moshiur Rahman Jewel and Saiful Islam Suman.
With the officers now in jail custody in connection with the JIC and TFI proceedings, the tribunal will next move towards pre-trial hearings on the detailed allegations of enforced disappearance, secret detention and torture said to have taken place during the previous government’s rule.