The International Crimes Tribunal on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for former Awami League lawmaker Muhammad Saiful Islam and four police officials in connection with crimes against humanity and genocide during the July-August mass uprising in Ashulia in Savar upazila in the outskirts of the capital.
The three-member tribunal, led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder and having Justice Md Shofiul Alam Mahmood and retired district judge Md Mohitul Haq Anam Chowdhury as members, directed law enforcement agencies to produce the five accused before the court on January 26.
The arrest warrants were issued following an application filed by chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam.
Tajul refrained from naming the accused police officers, saying that they might flee to evade arrest if their names are published in the media.
At a press briefing, Tajul Islam provided harrowing details of an incident on August 5, when six students were shot dead in Ashulia.
He revealed that the victims鈥� bodies were reportedly placed on a rickshaw using a sling before being transported by a police van to a location near a police station.
There, an attempt was allegedly made to set the bodies on fire using petrol inside the van.
鈥楢pparently, the attempt was made to present the killings as committed by student protesters,鈥� Tajul said, describing the incident as part of a series of disturbing events surrounding the uprising.
Currently, several former law enforcement officers, including former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, former Dhaka district additional superintendent of police Abdullahhil Kafi, and former police inspector Arafat Hossain, are in jail facing charges of crimes against humanity during the July-August uprising in Savar and Ashulia.
