UNB, Dhaka :The International Crimes Tribunal-2 will pronounce judgment Tuesday on war crimes accused Syed M Qaiser of Habiganj, a former state minister during HM Ershad’s military rule in mid-80s, now in custody.Keeping its judgment pending over four months, the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Obaidul Hassan, fixed the date on Monday.On August 20, the tribunal kept its judgment pending for delivery any day, after formally closing law-point arguments from both sides in the trial of 1971 war crimes against humanity allegedly perpetrated by Qaiser, and sent him to jail revoking its August 5, 2013 conditional bail granted on medical and humanitarian grounds.On February 2 this year, the tribunal indicted Qaiser for his involvement in crimes against humanity, including genocide during the 1971 Liberation War.Septuagenarian Qaiser, a turncoat politician, was arrested on May 21 last year in connection with the war crimes case. On November 14, 2013, the tribunal took cognisance of the formal charge as it found prima facie case against the accused under sections 3(2) and 4(1) (2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.According to the investigation agency, after Bangladesh’s independence, Qaiser, a former Pakistan Convention Muslim League activist, entered politics by joining BNP and subsequently became the president of its Habiganj unit.Later, he quit BNP to join Ershad’s Jatiya Party and became state minister for agriculture in 1989. According to information, he lately joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Col (retd) Oli Ahmad. Qaiser, as a local Peace Committee leader during the Liberation War, had formed a vigilante group ‘Qaiser Force’ after his name comprising 500-700 of his trusted men in Habiganj and committed crimes against humanity, including genocide, in collaboration with the Pakistani occupation army. At the latter part of the Liberation War, he had fled to London and returned home after the August 1975 political changeover.
