ICT set to charge sheet 150 additional serving and retired officers of Bangladesh Army

New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) In mounting trouble for Bangladesh Army officers, more than 150 serving as well as retired officers have come under the lens of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) over excesses on students and dissenting voices, their enforced disappearances and killings and therefore may face "penal action" soon.

A new charge sheet is set to be brought against these serving and retired officers of the Bangladesh Army, and warrants may be issued against them from Tuesday to Thursday, those privy to the information said.

According to sources in the ICT, charges will also be framed against all the Army chiefs, who had served from 2009 to 2025.

During last year's July-August movement against the previous Sheikh Hasina regime, hundreds of students and civilians were killed by security forces, while bullets were also fired from helicopters using sniper rifles. It is for this reason that the chief of Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) and a few top officials are also likely to be named in the charge sheet.

Another source said, this time the target has assumed a broader spectrum wherein the accused are the Bangladesh Army top brass, BAF Chief and some Bangladesh Navy officers, who had discharged important responsibilities and sensitive duties during Sheikh Hasina's tenure (such as DGFI, NSI, RAB, SSF, PGR, Prime Minister's and President's offices, Military Attaches of embassies, etc), under various pretexts and dismiss or send them on compulsory retirement. This also includes the Awami League family, freedom fighter families and officers representing the religious and ethnic minority groups.

Meanwhile, it is learnt, two mid-ranking undercover officers of Pakistani ISI arrived in Bangladesh in August, this year to work with ICT and a few more key figures, including pro-Pakistan Lt Gen S.M. Kamrul Hasan (Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division), Khalilur Rahman (National Security Advisor), Adilur Rahman Khan (advisor in the interim government), Brig Gen (Retd) Abdullahil Amaan Azmi (son of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ghulam Azam), Asif Nazrul (law advisor), Tajul Islam (Jamaat-e-Islami leader and now Chief Prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal) and others to finalise the list of the accused and allegations against the 150 military officers.

It is further learnt that several pro-Jamaat officers in the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Air Force and Bangladesh Navy are working as a pressure group to force Army Chief General Waker Uz Zaman to abide by the decision of the Yunus government. Additionally, they are also doing preparations for launching the 'Islamic Revolutionary Army' (IRA), immediately after the current Army Chief is removed.

The source said these highly radicalised Jamaat-inclined junior military officers are even plotting a massacre inside various cantonments in Bangladesh, targeting "pro-AL" and "pro-India" officers and jawans.

On Thursday, ICT investigators filed a charge sheet accusing 11 senior army officers - including eight generals - of committing "crimes against humanity", offences that carry the death penalty.

Notably, the charge sheet also identifies former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the principal accused in the case.

--IANS

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