August 20, 2024
DHAKA –
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina faces charges of crimes against humanity in another complaint at the International Crimes Tribunal, this time with allies Hasanul Haq Inu, Rashed Khan Menon and Anwar Hossain Manju, among others, as her co-accused.
Besides Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Inu, Workers Party President Menon and Jatiya Party (JP) Chairman Manju, Tariqat Federation President Syed Nazibul Bashar Maizvandary from the Awami League-led 14-Party Alliance has also been named in the complaint.
Md Abul Hasan, father of Shahriar Hasan Alvi, a 15-year-old ninth grader of Desh Polytechnic College who was killed during the student-led uprising in Dhaka’s Mirpur on August 4, filed the complaint yesterday afternoon.
The complainant also accused around 500 unidentified members of the Awami League, Jubo League, Chhatra League and police as a group.
The 27 people named in the case include former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, former law minister Anisul Huq, former prime minister’s adviser Salman F Rahman, and Awami League general secretary and minister Obaidul Quader.
Among the others are former foreign minister Hasan Mahmud, former minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, former state minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, former state minister for information Mohammad Ali Arafat, former state minister Kamal Ahmed Majumder, former IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, and former RAB director general Md Shafiur Rahman.
According to the complaint, Alvi died after being shot by police at the behest of the accused. It mentioned the entire country of Bangladesh as the location of the incident. It also said that the incident took place between July 15 and August 5, the day Hasina was ousted.
5 MORE MURDER CASES
Hasina has been accused in five more murder cases over killings in different parts of Bangladesh during the student-led movement that led to her ouster and escape.
With these, she is now facing 21 cases, including 18 on murder charges, two over alleged crimes against humanity and genocide, and one on allegation of abduction.
Several members of her cabinet, ex-Awami League lawmakers, leaders and activists of the party, and police officers are Hasina’s co-accused in these cases.
One of the three latest cases in Dhaka was filed by Afsana Akhter Islam over the killing of her husband Jubo Dal leader Abdullah Kabir Khan, 50, at Mirpur-10 on August 4. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mehedi Hasan ordered Mirpur police to register the complaint as a first information report (FIR).
Among the 66 other accused are AL General Secretary Quader, ex-home minister Asaduzzaman, former Mirpur MPs Majumder and Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil, ex-IGP Mamun, ex-DMP chief Habibur Rahman, former chief of DMP’s DB Harunor Rashid, and former DMP joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarkar.
In another case, Hasina is among 148 accused of killing protester Liton Hasan Lalu in Mirpur-10 on August 4. The others include Quader, Asaduzzaman, Kamal Majumder, Nikhil and the top police officers names in the previous case. Lalu’s brother Md Milon Hasan filed a complaint with a magistrate’s court that ordered police to register it as an FIR.
In the other case in the capital, Hasina and 12 others were sued over the death of carpenter Tarique Hossain, 18, who passed away on August 9 after being shot in front of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station on August 5.
A Dhaka metropolitan magistrate ordered the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to submit an investigation report by September 30 in the case filed by Tarique’s mother Fidusi Khatun.
Along with Quader, Asaduzzaman, Majumder, Nikhil, Mamun, Harun, Habibur and Biplob, former law minister Anisul was named in the case.
In Chattogram, Hasina, Quader and 106 other people were sued in a case over the killing of college student Wasim Akram in a clash between Chhatra League and protesters in the Muradpur area on July 16 – one of the first killings that turned the quota reform movement into a mass uprising. Wasim’s mother Jyotsna lodged the case last night at Panchlaish Police Station.
Wasim, a third-year social science student at Chattogram College, was involved with Chhatra Dal, the BNP’s student wing, according to police and his family members.
The other accused include Chattogram-based former ministers Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury Nowfel, Hasan Mahmud, former Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) mayor Rezaul Karim, city unit AL’s General Secretary AJM Nasir Uddin, former Chattogram-10 MP Mohiuddin Bachchu, and 12 AL-backed CCC ward councillors. Some 100 to 150 unnamed people were also accused in the case.
In Narayanganj, the case was filed against Hasina, Quader, Asaduzzaman, former MP Shamim Osman and 58 others on Sunday. Shamim Osman’s son Imtinan Osman Ayon, nephew Azmery Osman and many of his followers were also accused in the case. Plaintiff Shahnaz is the widow of victim Md Milon, a fish trader.
On July 21, law enforcers and Awami League men clashed with the protesters between Signboard and Shimrail on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway. Milon, who lived with his family in the Mizmizi Purbapara area in Siddhirganj, was shot in the chest while returning home from a fish warehouse on that day.
Two journalists were also accused in the case over Milon’s killing. They are Billal Hossain Robin, staff reporter of The Daily Manabzamin and correspondent of NTV, and Forhad Hossain, Siddhirganj Thana correspondent of The Daily Bhorer Kagoj.