Prosecution at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 pleaded to drop name of one accused from formal charge in crimes against humanity case against 19 Maheshkhali Razakars.
“We have submitted the formal charge in the case on March 23, 2016, with name of SI Shamsul Haque as 19th accused. But on February 13, 2017, superintendents of Sylhet and Cox’s Bazar police submitted two separate reports, saying they couldn’t locate Haque as his full address has not been found yet. So for the sake of proper justice, we are pleading to drop Haque’s name from the formal charge,” prosecutor Rana Dasgupta said in his submission.
After hearing the plea, Justice Anwarul Haque, chairman of the three-member panel of ICT-1, set March 27 for passing order on the matter.
The 19 accused in the case are Salamat Ullah Khan, 77, Moulavi Zakaria Sikdar, 78, Md Rashid Miah, 83, Oli Ahmad, 58, Jalal Uddin alias Jalal Ahmed, 63, Moulavi Nurul Islam, 61, Md Saiful alias Sabul, 53, Momtaz Ahmed, 60, Habibur Rahman alias Habib Munshi, 70, Moulavi Amjad Ali, 70, Abdul Majid, 85, Badsha Mia, 73, Osman Gani, 61, Abdus Shukkur, 65, Md Zakaria, 58, Md Jinnah alias Jinnat Ali, 58, Moulavi Jalal, 75, Abdul Aziz, 68, and SI Shamsul Haque.
Of them Salamat, Rashid, Nurul Islam, Badsha, Osman Gani, Jinnat Ali were arrested and sent to jail. Rashid is now on bail.
Earlier, the prosecution submitted the formal charge in the case, pressing 12 charges against the accused.
The investigation agency of the ICT while probing the crimes committed by Cox’s Bazar Razakar kingpins Salamat, Rashid and Zakaria, found the involvement of another 16 people with the crimes against humanity and acting on their plea, the tribunal had issued warrants for their arrest.
