Probe starts against BNP's Osman Farooq over 1971 war crimes charges

Bangladesh war crimes tribunal’s prosecution is probing former BNP minister Osman Farooq over allegations of crimes against humanity during the 1971 war.

The prosecution’s investigation wing is working with a list of 11 people, which includes the BNP leader, who were involved with war crimes at the agricultural university area, said its Senior Coordinator Sanaul Haque.

He said that most of the people on the list were teachers and employees of the university.

“He (Farooq) was then a reader at the university’s agriculture economics faculty.”

Farooq, whose father Osman Gani was the university’s founding vice chancellor, served as the education minister during the BNP’s 2001-06 term.

The prosecution’s investigation arm, however, did not disclose details of the allegations.

When Mymensingh-7 MP from Jatiya Party MA Hannan was arrested last year on war crimes charges, the prosecution referred to a Pakistan army ‘torture cell’ on the university campus in 1971,

Case documents against Hannan refer to an army camp in the university campus, where freedom fighter Adbur Rahman was tortured and killed.

According to media reports, the Pakistani forces entered Mymensingh on Apr 23, 1971. The university’s guesthouse was made its regional command’s head quarter.

During the war, bodies of murdered civilians were buried on the banks of the Brahmaputra River beside the campus.

After independence, University authorities officially declared the site as a ‘1971 killing field’.