A new complaint was filed at the International Crimes Tribunal for Bangladesh on Tuesday, accusing ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 23 others of committing crimes against humanity and genocide during a rally of an Islamist group in May 2013.
Supreme Court lawyer Ghazi MH Tamim filed the complaint on behalf of Hefazat-e-Islam joint general secretary (education and law) Mufti Haroon Izhar Chaudhry, the Daily Star newspaper reported.
“We have registered the complaint and the investigation has started today,” Ataur Rahman, deputy director (administration) of the investigating agency, told the newspaper.
“Once we complete the preliminary investigation and visit the scene and the tribunal is reconstituted, we will seek an arrest warrant against the accused through the prosecution,” he said.
The complaint accused Hasina and 23 others of committing crimes against humanity and genocide during a Hefazat-e-Islam rally at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel on May 5, 2013.
This is the fourth complaint filed at the International Crimes Tribunal accusing the 76-year-old former prime minister, who resigned and fled to India on August 5 following massive protests against her government over a controversial quota system in government jobs.
Of these four cases, three are related to the recent violence centered on the quota reform movement.
The other accused include Awami League general secretary and former road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader, former minister Reshad Khan Menon, former Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, former prime minister adviser Salman F Rahman, former prime minister’s security adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui, former inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Haque, ABNews24.com editor Subhas Singh Roy and former army chief Aziz Ahmed.
Apart from these, some unknown Ministers, State Ministers and MPs, unknown persons from law enforcement agencies and the then policy makers of some electronic and print media were also made accused.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday urged India to extradite Hasina so she could be prosecuted, accusing her of conspiring to sabotage the country’s revolution.
More than 230 people were killed in incidents of violence across the country following the fall of the Hasina-led Awami League government, taking the death toll to over 600 since massive protests launched by students in mid-July.
Following the fall of the Hasina-led government, an interim government was formed and 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed as its chief advisor.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)