RAB arrests fugitive Kishoreganj war criminal Rajab Ali, who was sentenced to death in 2018

The Rapid Action Battalion has arrested M Aminul Haque alias Rajab Ali, a fugitive war criminal who was sentenced to death in 2018 for crimes like mass killing.

The RAB in a message said on Saturday night it arrested him in Dhaka’s Kalabagan and more details will be revealed at a press conference on Sunday.  

According to the prosecution of the International Crimes Tribunal, Rajab received arms training at the Pakistan Army camp in Kishoreganj’s Bhairab during the Liberation War in 1971 and later formed the local unit of Al-Badr militia to assist the Pakistani forces upon his return to his area, Alinagar village in Kishoreganj’s Austagram.

Freedom fighters reportedly caught him after independence and he was jailed for life in three cases filed under the Collaborators Act 1972.

Freed in 1981, Rajab authored a book “Al-Badr Bolchhi”.

The prosecution pointed that his statements in the book proved the war crime charges against him.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Rajab and another fugitive, Md Liakat Ali from Habiganj, to death on Nov 5, 2018 for crimes against humanity, including murder and genocide during the Liberation War.

According to the probe report, both of them committed several crimes in Lakhai Upazila in Habiganj, Nasirnagar Upazila in Brahmanbaria and Austagram Upazila in Kishoreganj during the war.

According to the prosecution, Liakat was an activist of the Muslim League prior to the war while Rajab was a member of its student organisation. Rajab became the president of the Bhairab Haji Asmat Ali College unit of the Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1970.

Liakat and Rajab, supported by Pakistani soldiers, committed mass killings and looting in Krishnapur village under Lakhai Upazila in Habiganj on Sept 18, 1971.

Forty-three members from the Hindu community were shot dead during their raid, according to charges cited by the prosecutors.