Decision on charge acceptance July 24
This August 22, 2012 photo shows Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam talking to newsmen after his arrest at his Moghbazar home in the capital in connection with wartime offences.
The prosecution Thursday pressed six charges of wartime offences, which include mass murder, rape, torture and loot, against Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam.
The 61-year-old, now behind the bars, also faces charges of abduction, confinement and arson in northern district of Rangpur during 1971 Liberation War.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s assistant secretary general, Azhar was a student of Rangpur Carmichael College and president of Islami Chhatra Sangha of Rangpur district unit during the Liberation War.
Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, the chief of International Crimes Tribunal-1 which is holding Azhar’s trial, fixed July 24 for passing an order on whether it would take into cognisance the charges.
The tribunal fixed the date after prosecutor Nurjahan Begum Mukta informed that she had already submitted the charges to the tribuna’s registrar.
The Jamaat leader was taken to the tribunal building but not produced before the court.
According to the charges pressed against him, Azhar was then involved in the mass killing in Rangpur where around 1,225 people were killed.
Besides, he was also involved in killing four people, abducting 17, raping one, confining 13, torturing 13 people and looting and torching numerous houses in the district.
Police arrested Azharul at his Moghbazar home in the capital on August 22 last year after the tribunal issued an arrest warrant against him in connection with wartime offences.
The probe agency, beginning its investigation on April 15, 2012, completed it on July 8.
Source: The Daily Star
