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Published : 06 May 2026, 04:57 PM
The indictment hearing against eight people, including former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, in the crimes against humanity case of killing nine youths in a “staged anti-militant operation” in Dhaka's Kalyanpur has been postponed.
The International Crimes Tribunal has set a new date for the hearing on Jun 7 in light of the prosecution's request for additional time.
A three-member bench led by International Crimes Tribunal-1 Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder gave the order on Wednesday.
The other two members of the bench are Justice Md Shafiul Alam Mahmud and Judge Md Mohitul Haque Enam Chowdhury.
Prosecutor Shaikh Mahdi represented the prosecution at the hearing.
When he requested another month for the hearing on the chargesheet in the case, the court granted it and set Jun 7 as the date.
Two suspects, former IGP AKM Shahidul Haque and former DMP commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Mia, are currently in jail.
The six absconding suspects in the case are Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the then additional commissioner of DMP Sheikh Muhammad Maruf Hasan, then Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) unit chief Md Monirul Islam, then joint commissioner (crime) of DMP Krishna Pada Roy and then joint commissioner (DB) Abdul Baten.
On Feb 22, the court ordered the publication of advertisements in two national dailies for the absconding suspects to appear before the tribunal. Later, on Mar 8, the prosecution applied for the appointment of state lawyers on behalf of the six absconding suspects.
On Jan 29 this year, the tribunal took cognisance of the formal charges filed by the prosecution in this case.
According to the prosecution, on the night of Jul 25, 2016, 25 days after the Gulshan Holey Artisan attack, the police CTTC unit conducted a raid on an alleged militant hideout in a house named “Taj Manzil” on Road No. 5 in Kalyanpur.
The house was known to the locals as “Jahajbari” due to the shape of the building.
In that raid, named Operation Storm-26, nine youths were shot dead.
After the raid, the law-enforcing agencies claimed that all the dead were members of a militant group known as the “neo-JMB”.
One person named Hasan was arrested after being shot in the incident and another person escaped.
On the night of Jul 27, the day after the incident, Mirpur Model Police Station inspector Md Shahjahan Alam filed a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act as the plaintiff.
The case filed against 10 suspects is still pending at the Anti-Terrorism Tribunal.
However, following the fall of the Awami League government on Aug 5, 2024 in the face of a student-led mass uprising, different interpretations of that raid began to emerge.
In continuation of this, a case of crimes against humanity was filed at the International Crimes Tribunal, accusing the suspects of killing nine youths people by staging a “militant drama”.
