ICT issues arrest warrant against former DMP commissioner over shooting of youth on cornice

The second charge concerns a six-year-old boy named Musa who was shot last year

The International Crimes Tribunal has issued an arrest warrant for former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Habibur Rahman and four other ex-policemen in connection with the shooting of a man who was hanging from a cornice in Rampura during the July Uprising, as well as the killing of two other individuals.

The three-member bench of Tribunal 1, led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, delivered the order on Sunday.

Apart from Habibur, the accused include former additional deputy commissioner of Khilgaon Zone Md Rashedul Islam, former chief of Rampura Police Station Md Mashiur Rahman, and former sub-inspector of the same station Tariqul Islam Bhuiyan.

Prosecutor Gazi MH Tamim said three charges were submitted to the tribunal on Sunday and were all taken into cognisance.

Tamim told reporters that the case names five suspects.

One of them, former assistant sub-inspector Chanchal Chandra Sarkar of the Rampura police outpost, is already in custody and has been ordered to appear in court on Aug 17.

Arrest warrants were issued for the four others, who remain at large.

Describing the first charge, Tamim said that on the afternoon of Jul 19, 2024, during the uprising last year, Amir Hossain, a hotel worker, was returning to his aunt’s home in Rampura when he encountered police and Border Guard Bangladesh vehicles blocking both sides of the Banasree-Meradia road.

He climbed onto the roof of a four-storey building under construction in an attempt to escape.

Police officers chased him, Tamim said.

As Amir clung to a cornice rod to save himself, a policeman fired six shots at him.

He fell to the building’s third floor, where witnesses pulled him to safety.

He was taken first to a local hospital in Banasree and later that night to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where he remained under treatment for an extended period before returning home.

The second charge concerns a six-year-old boy named Musa, who was at home with his grandmother during the unrest.

Police gunfire struck Musa in the head, with the same bullet hitting his grandmother in the back, killing her instantly, Tamim said.

The boy was treated locally before being transferred to Singapore. He survived but has been unable to speak since the incident.

The third charge involves the killing of a man named Nadeem in Rampura's Banasree, who Tamim said died after police opened fire.