The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has accepted charges of crimes against humanity in two cases involving enforced disappearances and torture allegedly carried out during the long rule of the Awami League government, led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A total of 30 individuals have been named accused in the cases, and the tribunal has issued arrest warrants against all of them.
On Wednesday (October 8), a three-member judicial panel led by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Mojumder, chairman of Tribunal-1, took the formal charges into cognizance and ordered the arrest of the accused.
Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tazul Islam represented the prosecution, describing in court the brutal abductions, secret detentions, and torture of political dissidents, journalists, writers, and cultural activists during the Awami League regime — actions that, he said, amount to crimes against humanity.
In the first case, aside from Sheikh Hasina, the accused include former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed, former Defense Adviser Major General (Retd.) Tariq Ahmed Siddique, former RAB Director General M. Khurshid Hossain, former RAB DG Barrister Harun ur Rashid, Colonel Anwar Latif Khan, Brigadier General Jahangir Alam, Toufayel Mostafa Sarwar, K.M. Azad, and 17 other RAB officials accused of involvement in abductions, enforced disappearances, and torture at the Task Force Interrogation (TFI) Cell.
In the second case, Sheikh Hasina and 13 senior military and intelligence officials have been accused of similar crimes at the Joint Interrogation Center (JIC). Among them are several former DGFI directors general and army officers — four of whom are reportedly still in active service.
Chief Prosecutor Tazul Islam stated that, under the amended ICT Act, any serving military officers accused in such cases cannot continue in their positions.
It is noteworthy that between 2009 and 2024, during the Awami League’s rule, hundreds of people were forcibly disappeared, many of whom remain missing. Following Sheikh Hasina’s fall from power on August 5, 2024, several disappeared individuals — including Barrister Mir Ahmad Bin Kashem and Abdullahil Amaan Azmi — were released from secret detention facilities. Their testimonies formed the basis of these two cases.
The formal charges were submitted this morning by the prosecution to the tribunal, marking a historic moment in Bangladesh’s judicial history concerning accountability for enforced disappearances.