Bagerhat ‘Razakars’ Siraj, Akram in war crimes tribunal for verdict

Two ‘Razakars’ of Bagerhat - Sheikh Sirajul Haque alias ‘Siraj Master’ and Khan Akram Hossain – have been brought to the war crimes tribunal.

Verdict for Bagerhat ‘Razakars’ Tuesday

The Justice M Enayetur Rahim-led International Crimes Tribunal-1 is expected to deliver the final verdict on the case against them around 10am on Tuesday.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner SM Imanul Haque said that the prison van carrying Siraj and Akram left from the Dhaka Central Jail just after 8:30am.

The van arrived at the tribunal right before 9am and the two have been kept at the court’s prison cell.

The two were indicted on seven charges, including torture, abduction, loot, murders, and mass killings of unarmed civilians during the Liberation War in 1971 along with Abdul Latif Talukder.

Talukder, 75, died of old age complications at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital on Jul 27.

This will be the 21st verdict since the long-awaited trial of the war crimes suspects began with the tribunal on Mar 25, 2010.

The special tribunal kept the verdict pending after arguments ended on June 23 and in last week, set Aug 11 for its delivery.

The trio’s trial began in November last year. The case’s investigator Helal Uddin and 31 others testified against the Bagerhat men.

The defence produced five witnesses.

A case filed in 2009 accused 12 including Siraj Master of six crimes including the massacre of 42 people, rape and torching of homes at Shankhari Bazar in Bagerhat’s Kachua during the war.

Nimai Chadra Das, son of Jitendra Nath Das who was killed in the massacre, had filed the case at Kachua Police Station.

It was later transferred to the tribunal which issued arrest warrants for the three on Jun 10 and Kachua police arrested Talukder the next day.

Akram Hossain was arrested in Rajshahi on Jun 19 and Siraj Master on Jul 20.

As the war began, the trio joined the ‘Razakars’, the vigilante militia group, to assist the invading Pakistani Army against liberation seekers, according to the prosecution's investigation agency’s report.

They received training from the Pakistani army at Khulna’s Ansar Camp.

From them, they collected weapons and ammunition to carry out murders, mass killings, rape, pillage, and forced conversion of Hindus in different parts of Bagerhat with other Razakars. rhn/sbh