Four Netrakona suspects arrested

Police yesterday arrested four war crimes accused of Netrakona, hours after the International Crimes Tribunal-1 ordered the arrest of five men who allegedly committed crimes during the Liberation War in 1971.

The arrested are Azizur Rahman, 65, Ashak Ali, 82, Md Shahnewaz, 88, and Ramjan Ali, 78, of Durgapur upazila.

Humayun Kabir, officer-in-charge of Durgapur Police Station, said Azizur, Ashak, and Shahnewaz were arrested at their homes in Durgapur around 1:00pm. They will be produced before the tribunal on Thursday, he said.

Meanwhile, detectives arrested Ramjan Ali in Narsingdi town around 3:30pm, reported our district correspondent quoting Delwar Hossain, inspector of Detective Branch of police in Narsingdi.

A fifth accused, Khalilur Rahman, 72, also a brother of Azizur Rahman, is yet to be arrested.

Earlier in the day, Prosecutor Rana Dasgupta sough the arrest of the five, saying the investigation officer of the case had already found evidence over their involvement in genocide and crimes against humanity committed in 1971.

He said the accused were locally influential persons and were intimidating the witnesses. Besides, they need to be interrogated for proper investigation, said Rana Dasgupta, adding that the accused might flee the country as they were living in a bordering area. The prosecutor said the accused were involved with Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971, and when the war broke out, they joined Razakar and Al-Badr Bahini, two auxiliary forces of the Pakistani army. Badrul Alam, the investigation officer, said the probe started on April 30 last year and he had found "preliminary evidence" over their involvement in crimes.