Supreme Court lawyer Nazneen Nahar, the sister and legal counsel of sacked army officer Ziaul Ahsan, has claimed that missing boatman Alkas Mallik was a dacoit whom her brother did not know.
Speaking to journalists on the premises of the International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday, she made the claims regarding her brother, who stands accused in over a hundred cases of enforced disappearance and murder during the tenure of the fallen Awami League government.
According to Nazneen, Alkas Mallik and his brother Abbas Mallik were both dacoits. She claimed that during the government’s rehabilitation programme for dacoits in 2018, Alkas was provided with a job as a gardener at Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-8 in Barishal.
She added that Alkas subsequently left the position – which paid at least Tk15,000 per month along with food – to work as a day labourer in his local area, questioning why anyone would abandon such employment unless still involved in robbery.
Nazneen further claimed that Ziaul Ahsan did not know Alkas.
Witness details order to ‘eliminate’ boatman
However, depositions delivered by at least two witnesses before International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) present a starkly different account, describing Alkas as a boatman engaged in operating vessels for RAB operations who knew details about extrajudicial killings or “Golf Operation” and went missing after being summoned by RAB personnel.
Former army officer retired Major Md Sabbir Rahman Osmany testified before ICT-1 on 17 September that Ziaul Ahsan had contacted him in June 2011 regarding boatman Alkas.
Sabbir stated he informed Ziaul that Alkas had served as one of the boatmen navigating vessels during his “Golf” operation, with his management, control, and remuneration handled by RAB-8 attached Intelligence Wing personnel.
Upon learning that Alkas was disclosing details about “Golf Operation” at Char Duani market – posing a security risk to RAB – an annoyed Ziaul ordered Sabbir to “eliminate” Alkas.
When Sabbir requested to be relieved of the instruction on health grounds, Ziaul relented, saying, “Let it be, not needed.”
Sabbir testified that approximately a week later, the commanding officer of RAB-8 summoned him urgently to the office and introduced him to members of Alkas’s family.
Alkas’s wife informed the commander that four or five days prior, Alkas had received a mobile phone call summoning him in the name of Ziaul Ahsan.
Alkas had told his wife before leaving home that Ziaul had called him, after which all contact was lost and he could not be found.
Both Sabbir and the commanding officer understood his fate, with the commander assuring search efforts, advising that RAB Headquarters be notified since Alkas worked with the Intelligence Wing, and providing financial assistance to the family.
Family details disappearance, river killings
Alkas’s brother, Abbas Mullik, provided corroborating testimony before the tribunal on 2 September, stating that his younger brother operated boats for RAB.
Abbas testified that in mid-2011, Alkas received a phone call claiming to be from RAB instructing him to meet Ziaul Ahsan with the words, “Ziaul Sir asked you to come to Bot Tola Manikkhali.”
Alkas departed home that afternoon, and by 7pm or 8pm, his wife discovered his phone was switched off.
Searches across RAB offices in Khulna, Patuakhali, Barishal, and Dhaka yielded no trace. Patharghata Police Station accepted a General Diary (GD) but refused family requests to name Ziaul Ahsan and RAB in the report.
In his testimony, Abbas also detailed 2010 RAB river operations in which detainees picked up from Dhaka and other regions were brought in microbuses at night with hands and eyes bound, loaded onto boats alongside cement bags, ropes, and hogla mats, and taken to deep waters in the Baleshwar River.
RAB members regularly visited Char Duani and Kathaltoli areas requesting boats from local owners.
Abbas alleged that detainees were shot dead in specific sections of the boats in deep water and thrown into the river with cement bags tied to their necks or legs, with Ziaul Ahsan directly participating in the executions.
Abbas added that other boat owners had warned Alkas after he spoke about RAB’s actions in the market, warning him that RAB was angry with him shortly before he left home following the phone call under RAB’s identity and never returned.
