The alleged Al-Badr leaders face 11 charges
A special tribunal in Dhaka, which tried alleged Al-Badr leaders Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan in absentia, is set to deliver its verdict any day.
The two face 11 charges for their alleged involvement in the killing of 18 intellectuals in between the early hours of December 11 to December 15 in 1971.
After hearing the arguments from the prosecution and the defence, the ICT-2 led by Justice Obaidul Hassan kept the case awaiting judgment.
Mueen and Ashraf, now in London and New York respectively, were among the “most wanted” after the Liberation War for killing intellectuals. Their pictures were published in newspapers soon after the victory with a call for their capture.
Mueen, the “operation in-charge of Al-Badr”, and Ashraf, the “chief executor of Al-Badr”, were indicted on June 25 for “abetting and for complicity” by “participating” in the killing of 13 people and “abetting and for complicity” by “instructing” the killing of five others.
Anticipating defeat, the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators, especially the infamous Al-Badr force, had picked up leading Bangalee intellectuals and professionals and killed them en masse to cripple the new nation.
Among the 18 martyrs, nine were Dhaka University teachers, six were journalists and three were physicians.
This is the second war crimes case in which the trial has been conducted in absentia, as the tribunal’s attempts to have the accused in the courtroom had failed. Earlier, the court convicted “absconded” expelled Jamaat-e-Islami member Abul Kalam Azad also known as Bachchu Razakar.
Source: The Daily Star
