The prosecution has formally submitted charges to the International Crimes Tribunal against sacked Major General Ziaul Ahsan concerning enforced disappearances and killings, allegedly carried out with state backing during the ousted Awami League government.
The charges include gruesome allegations of victims being suffocated with pillows, shot, stabbed in the abdomen, tied with cement blocks, and dumped in rivers. Crime scenes were reportedly scrubbed with brushes and washed with water to erase evidence, such as bloodstains.
On Wednesday, the three-member International Crimes Tribunal-1, headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumdar, took cognisance of the formal charges. Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam argued in favour of the charges.
Three counts have been brought against the accused, and the next hearing is scheduled for 21 December.
The prosecution claims Ziaul Ahsan was directly involved in the abduction and killing of more than a hundred people, while separate investigations are ongoing into more than 500 cases of enforced disappearance and murder linked to him.
The list of alleged victims includes BNP leaders Salahuddin Ahmed, Ilias Ali, and Chowdhury Alam; Shibir leader Hafez Zakir Hossain; and many others who were reportedly abducted or killed. Salahuddin’s life was spared, but many others were not so lucky.
Accused facing three counts
According to the prosecution, Ziaul became a close confidant of Sheikh Hasina after being posted to the Rapid Action Battalion while serving as an army major in 2009.
As a result, he was never sent back to the Bangladesh Army until his mandatory retirement as a major general in 2024. Throughout Hasina’s tenure, he served under the Ministry of Home Affairs in various forces and agencies.
The prosecution alleges that Ziaul was promoted to major general without completing the required courses or training and without commanding any battalion, brigade, or formation, calling it an unprecedented incident in the Bangladesh Army’s professional history.
From 2009 to 2016, Ziaul served as director of the intelligence wing and additional director general (operations) of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
During this period, he allegedly directly participated in numerous enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, while many other crimes against humanity were carried out by trusted RAB personnel under his direct orders, approval, and knowledge.
The formal charges state that Ziaul Ahsan committed crimes against humanity under Sections 3(2)(a), (f), (g), (h) and Sections 4(1), 4(2), and 4(3) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973, punishable under Sections 20(2) and 20A of the Act.
What are the specific charges?
The first charge alleges that on the night of 11 July 2011, Ziaul Ahsan planned and directly participated in the fatal shootings of Sajal and four unidentified individuals beside the Dhaka Bypass Road in Pubail, Gazipur.
The second charge alleges that between 2010 and 2013, at least 50 people, including Nazrul Islam Mallik and Alkach Mallik, were shot dead and disappeared near the estuary of the Baleshwar River in the Charduani area under Patharghata police station in Barguna.
The third charge alleges that between 2010 and 2013, under the pretext of suppressing forest dacoits, Ziaul Ahsan shot dead at least 50 people, including a person named Masud, in different areas of the Sundarbans under Sarankhola police station in Bagerhat and along the Baleshwar River in Barguna.
Ziaul’s alleged operations
According to prosecution sources, around 11:30pm on 11 July 2011, Ziaul Ahsan, then director of RAB’s intelligence wing, left RAB headquarters with his team, taking three or four detainees, including Sajal, who were already in custody illegally.
They travelled via Tongi along the Dhaka Bypass Road. After stopping the vehicle, one detainee with eyes and hands bound was taken out on Ziaul Ahsan’s instructions and shot dead by him.
They then proceeded further, stopped on a bridge, and removed another bound detainee from the vehicle. When a RAB officer refused to shoot the detainee despite being ordered to do so, Ziaul Ahsan allegedly shot him himself.
A third detainee was later shot dead by Ziaul, while the last detainee was killed by intelligence wing members on his instructions. The bodies were dumped beside the road or into ditches.
The prosecution claims that one of the major hotspots for such killings was the Baleshwar River and its estuary, accessed via the Charduani canal in Barguna. Witnesses told prosecutors that during such operations, RAB convoys would arrive late at night via Mathbaria in Pirojpur.
From the afternoon, plainclothes RAB or law enforcement personnel would order local shops to close by 9pm, switch off lights, and instruct residents not to leave their homes, creating an atmosphere of fear.
Around or after 11pm, RAB members in plain clothes would arrive in convoys, often bringing one or more detainees. The detainees’ eyes and hands were bound with cloth or rope, and their heads were covered with black cloth, preventing identification.
They were taken onto trawlers or boats to the middle of the river, shot at close range with pillows pressed against their bodies to suppress sound, stabbed in the abdomen, tied with cement blocks, and dumped into the water.
This method of killing and disposing of bodies was allegedly code-named “Gestapo” or “Golf.”
Sources said similar operations were carried out using the same method in the Buriganga and Shitalakshya rivers near Dhaka and in the estuary of the Karnaphuli River and the Bay of Bengal off the Patenga coast in Chattogram.
In many of these operations, Ziaul Ahsan allegedly participated in person, while others were carried out by selected intelligence wing members or personnel from other battalions under his direct command.
Among the killings carried out using the “Gestapo” method in the Baleshwar River were the murder of former BDR member Nazrul Islam Mallik and the abduction and killing of Alkach Mallik. Witness accounts indicate that at least 50 people were killed at that location under Ziaul Ahsan’s direction and participation.
During the hearing, the chief prosecutor said Ziaul turned the Sundarbans into a safe haven for killing missions under the guise of anti-piracy operations. Investigations have identified several senior and junior officers as accomplices, with separate probes underway against them.
The prosecution said previously detained and disappeared individuals were killed to legitimise the killings by staging them as encounters. Known forest dacoits were arrested and taken along with disappeared detainees to pre-selected hideouts in the Sundarbans, where victims were bound and shot dead.
After the killings, sustained gunfire was used to create the impression of armed encounters.
In many cases, journalists loyal to the then regime were allegedly taken as witnesses but kept away from the actual sites. Victims were killed out of sight and later presented as crossfire incidents.
Three notable operations allegedly led by Ziaul Ahsan were Operation Nishankhali, Operation Mora Bhola, and Operation Katka. In Nishankhali, Masud and Mannan were killed; in Mora Bhola, Jihad, Sohag, Alamin, Asad, and Belal were killed; and in Katka, Shishir Kumar Mondal alias Montu Member, Bacchu, Jamal Munshi alias Jamal, and eight others were killed.
According to witness accounts, at least 50 people, including those identified, were killed in these three operations across different parts of the Sundarbans under the direction and participation of Ziaul Ahsan.
