Dhaka, Sep 23 (bdnews24.com) — The second war crimes tribunal has ordered that a public announcement be made in the newspapers asking an alleged war criminal Bachchu Razakar to appear before the tribunal within 10 days of the publication.
A police report saying that popular TV show host Abul Kalam Azad, also known as Bachchu Razakar, was in hiding and couldn't be traced, was submitted to the three-judge International Crimes Tribunal – 2, set up to expedite the war crimes trials.
According to prosecutor Sahidur Rahman, the report said that Bachchu could not be located. It is believed that this man, an accomplice of the Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed in Faridpur, had slipped through security and fled to Pakistan.
The tribunal has ordered the registrar's office to publish the announcement in two widely circulated newspapers, one English and one Bengali, said Sahidur.
Meanwhile, the first tribunal ordered to produce Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdus Subhan, detained in a different case, before it on Sep 30.
The two war crimes tribunals are currently handling 11 cases together. Of the eight people indicted so far, six are Jamaat-e-Islami leaders including its former chief and ideologue, Ghulam Azam, current chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, the party's Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, and assistant secretaries general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla. The defence has already begun its case against the party's executive council member Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
Jamaat stalwart and financier Mir Quasem Ali and another assistant secretary general ATM Azharul Islam are behind bars while investigation continues against them.
BNP MP Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and former BNP MP and minister Abdul Alim are also facing war crimes trials.
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