Highlights
- Three senior police officials sentenced to death
- Prison terms handed down to five other police officers, ranging from three to six years
- Case linked to the killing of six people in police firing at Chankharpul on 5 August 2024 during July Uprising
- First July killings verdict against the police
- Four convicted officers remain absconding, including all three death-row convicts
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentenced three people, including former Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner Habibur Rahman, to death in a crimes against humanity case over the killing of six people in police firing in Dhaka’s Chankharpul on 5 August 2024 during the July Uprising.
The other two condemned to death are former DMP joint commissioner Sudip Kumar Chakraborty and former additional deputy commissioner of the Ramna Division Shah Alam Mohammad Akhtarul Islam.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard’s Google news channelThe verdict was delivered today (26 January) by the three-member ICT-1, headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder.
This is the second verdict delivered by the restructured ICT and the first judgment in any July killings case involving members of the police force.
In the same verdict, former assistant commissioner of the Ramna zone Mohammad Imrul was sentenced to six years in prison. Former Shahbagh Police Station inspector Md Arshad Hossain, currently in custody, received a four-year prison sentence, while former constables Md Sujan Hossain, Md Imaj Hossain and Md Nasirul Islam were sentenced to three years each.
Four of the convicted – Habibur Rahman, Sudip Kumar Chakraborty, Shah Alam Mohammad Akhtarul Islam and Mohammad Imrul – remain absconding.
The tribunal had earlier scheduled 20 January for delivering the verdict but deferred it as the judgment was not ready.
The case was kept under consideration for judgment on 24 December last year following the completion of arguments by both prosecution and defence. Charges were framed against all eight accused on 14 July 2025, while the prosecution submitted the formal charge on 25 May, marking the first formal indictment at the ICT in cases arising from the July Uprising.
According to the prosecution, six people – Shahriar Khan Anas, Sheikh Mahdi Hasan Zunayed, Md Yakub, Md Rakib Hawlader, Md Ismamul Haque and Manik Miah – were killed in police firing in Chankharpul on 5 August 2024.
The ICT investigation agency submitted a 90-page probe report on 20 April 2025.
