Pilkhana carnage: ex-PM Hasina among 15 people summoned to testify

Testimony can be given in two ways – directly to the commission's office or in a video conference, the notice reads

The National Independent Investigation Commission on the 2009 Pilkhana carnage has summoned 15 people, including deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, to testify as part of the ongoing investigation.

The commission also called ex-army chiefs Moeen U Ahmed and Aziz Ahmed along with her and former inspector general of police Noor Mohammad to testify in a “special notice” issued on Saturday.

The commission said in the notice posted on its website that recording the testimony of these people in the Pilkhana carnage investigation has become "indispensable”.

The notice specified two ways to testify – directly to the commission's office; or through video conference.

Besides Hasina, her former security advisor Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Fazle Noor Taposh, former MPs Jahangir Kabir Nanok, Mirza Azam, and AFM Bahauddin Nasim were also summoned to testify.

The commission also asked the then commander of the 44 Rifle Battalion Muhammad Shamsul Alam and former DGFI director general Mollah Fazle Akbar to depose before it.

The other witnesses are former additional inspector general of police Monirul Islam, former director general of Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB, Hasan Mahmud Khondoker, and former police officer Abdul Kahar Akand.

Hasina fled to India on Aug 5, 2024, in the wake of a student-led mass movement. She has been there ever since.

Awami League leaders, including the former prime minister's advisors and ministers, named as witnesses did not make public appearances after the government's fall. Some of them have reportedly gone abroad.

Earlier, the Independent Investigation Commission was formed on Dec 24, 2024, to reinvestigate the killings at the then Bangladesh Rifles, or BDR, Headquarters in Dhaka’s Pilkhana.

Two weeks after taking over as its chairman, ALM Fazlur Rahman, who was the chief of the border force from Feb 29, 2000, to Jul 11, 2001, said at an event on Jan 7 that Hasina should be brought back for investigation or interrogated in India.

He said, "We will resolve the country's internal matter within two months. We'll keep a month in hand. We especially suspect that Sheikh Hasina is in India.

“We will try to get her extradited through the foreign ministry or directly contact the High Commissioner of India or our team will go there and interview her."

The notice, which summoned 15 people to testify, said the commission aims to complete the testimony by Mar 31, urging the witnesses to respond with a proposed schedule within the next seven days.

The people on the list have been asked to contact the panel by email ([email protected]) or by phone [phone]).

A total of 74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed in the mutiny at the BDR Headquarters in Dhaka’s Pilkhana.

There have been demands for a re-investigation into the incident after the interim government took over.

The commission was established on Dec 24 with a 90-day deadline to submit its findings.