The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has ordered the trial of five accused, including a former Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner, over crimes against humanity committed during the July movement, including the shooting of a young man hanging from a building ledge in Dhaka’s Rampura and the killing of two others.
On Thursday, the three-member ICT-1 panel headed by Justice Golam Mortuza Mojumder framed charges against the accused and set October 16 for the prosecution’s opening statement.
The accused are former DMP Commissioner Habibur Rahman, former Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of Khilgaon Zone Md Rashedul Islam, former Rampura Police Station OC Md Moshiur Rahman, former SI Torikul Islam Bhuiyan, and former ASI Chanchal Chandra Sarker. Of them, only Chanchal Chandra Sarker is in custody; the remaining four are absconding.
Defense lawyers filed discharge petitions on behalf of Sarker and the absconding accused, but the tribunal rejected them and ordered the trial to begin against all five.
According to the case documents, on July 19 last year, Amir Hossain, a hotel worker visiting his aunt in Dhaka, climbed onto the roof of an under-construction building in Rampura after seeing police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) vehicles nearby during anti-government protests. Fearing for his life, he clung to the rods of the roof’s ledge. Police allegedly followed him and opened fire while he was hanging, causing him to fall to the third floor. He was rescued by locals, hospitalized, and later transferred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for extended treatment before eventually returning home.
The case also alleges that two more people were shot dead by security forces at the same location on the same day.
Investigators submitted the case report to the tribunal’s chief prosecutor’s office on July 31 this year.
