Former International Crimes Tribunal chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam has questioned why allegations of systematic abductions and killings involving former senior security official Ziaul Ahsan are receiving limited media attention even as witnesses give detailed accounts of the operations before the tribunal.

Testimony in Ziaul’s ongoing trial has described detainees allegedly being transported in microbuses to Bangladesh’s southern coast, taken aboard trawlers into the Baleshwar River, shot and their bodies weighted before being dumped in the water. Witnesses have also described pillows allegedly being used during executions and later washed to remove blood and brain matter.

Tajul, a Supreme Court lawyer and former ICT chief prosecutor, spoke about the allegations on Wednesday at a programme organised by Voice for Reform and Nagarik Coalition at Karwan Bazar in Dhaka. 

He said evidence now emerging in court showed the scale and organisation of alleged disappearances and killings during the Sheikh Hasina administration, but argued that much of it was failing to receive sustained coverage.

“Where are the news stories about the horrors of enforced disappearance?” Tajul said. “We talk so much about Ziaul Ahsan and the horrific episodes associated with him. Yet I hardly see them on television or in newspapers, except for the occasional isolated report.”

Maj Gen (relieved) Ziaul Ahsan, a former intelligence chief of the Rapid Action Battalion and later director general of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre, is standing trial before International Crimes Tribunal-1 on three counts of crimes against humanity involving the alleged enforced disappearance and killing of 104 people between 2010 and 2013.

Ziaul has pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution alleges that Ziaul, while serving in senior operational and intelligence positions in RAB, was involved in a system in which detainees were abducted, tortured and killed and their bodies disposed of to conceal evidence.

Several witnesses have given detailed accounts before the tribunal about alleged operations linked to him.

Retired Brig Gen Monirul Haque, a former commanding officer of RAB-8, testified in July that blindfolded detainees were taken by boat towards the Baleshwar estuary and killed in what he described as “elimination” operations.

Monirul told the tribunal that one detainee was covered with a heavy sack, shot and had his abdomen cut before his body was thrown into the water. He described the RAB Intelligence Wing operating under Ziaul as “unwarranted, uncontrolled, and illegal.”

Serving Army warrant officer Imrul Kayes, who previously worked as Ziaul’s bodyguard, has also testified about alleged killings. He described detainees being transported through the Char Duani area of Patharghata towards the Baleshwar River before being shot and dumped into the water with cement sacks attached to their bodies.

Tajul said the testimony showed that the alleged operations involved considerable preparation.

According to his account, the local RAB unit would be told beforehand how many personnel and detainees were arriving and instructed to arrange food and other supplies. The required items allegedly included ropes, cement sacks and trawlers.

“You can imagine what the ropes and cement were for,” Tajul said.

On nights when an operation was planned, he said, businesses at Char Duani Bazaar would be instructed to close by 9pm and switch off their lights.

Microbuses carrying detainees would then arrive. The detainees were allegedly kept inside the vehicles until they were transferred to trawlers.

The boats would travel through the Char Duani canal into the Baleshwar River and towards the estuary.

Tajul said those conducting the alleged operations kept track of tidal movements so bodies would be carried towards the sea.

Detainees were allegedly brought out of the boats’ holds, their hoods removed and then shot in the head. Their abdomens were cut and their bodies weighted with cement before being thrown into the river, according to the accounts cited by Tajul.

He highlighted testimony about pillows allegedly used during the killings.

“When they shot people in the head, blood and brain matter would splatter onto their hands,” Tajul said. “So they would put a pillow in between and fire through it.”

Witnesses had testified that the pillows were washed because they became covered with blood and brain matter and then dried for use in subsequent operations, he said.

“Why are these stories not being reported every day?” Tajul asked.

The allegations being heard by the tribunal are not confined to Char Duani.

Imrul Kayes has testified that shortly after becoming Ziaul’s bodyguard, he was called at night to help dispose of what he initially thought was a sack but discovered was a human body. According to his testimony, the body was placed on a railway track before a train passed over it.

The tribunal has also heard testimony concerning the 2012 disappearance of BNP leader M Ilias Ali, who remains missing.

A serving Army officer testified about preparations involving a “target” and conversations he said he heard around the time Ilias disappeared.

Tajul said the alleged methods of disposing of bodies also changed over time.

He previously told the tribunal that after bodies from the Narayanganj seven-murder case resurfaced in the Shitalakkhya River, Ziaul allegedly ordered that sufficient weight be attached to bodies so they would remain submerged after being dumped.

Tajul said the evidence emerging in the tribunal was particularly important because attempts were being made to portray accounts of enforced disappearances and secret detention centres as post-2024 fabrications.

He accused pro-Awami League social media pages and propaganda networks of pushing claims that investigators and rights advocates had invented accounts of disappearances.

“They repeatedly say these are imaginary stories invented by Tajul and Nabila,” he said, referring to Dr Nabila Idris, a member of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.

“They say we invented Aynaghar.”

Secret detention facilities commonly referred to as “Aynaghar” have since been identified, while tribunal judges have visited alleged detention sites in connection with cases involving enforced disappearance and torture.

Tajul said inadequate media coverage was allowing claims that the allegations had been fabricated to circulate without sufficient scrutiny.

“Our journalists are largely not talking about these things,” he said. “As a result, they get the opportunity to push their narrative.”

He stressed, however, that allegations against particular officers should not be treated as accusations against entire security forces.

“The whole force was not involved,” Tajul said.

He accused the Hasina government of empowering particular officers to carry out abuses in order to preserve its hold on power.

“Hasina turned certain individuals into monsters in order to prolong her rule,” he said.

Tajul linked the cases now before the tribunal to his criticism of the government’s proposed laws governing enforced disappearance and accountability of security agencies.

He questioned provisions that would leave investigations of alleged abuses involving members of security forces largely with those forces.

“Those who are accused—how can they investigate?” he asked.

Tajul said his experience with disappearance cases during the Hasina administration showed how difficult it was for courts to intervene when law-enforcement agencies denied taking a person into custody.

He recalled filing a High Court writ over the disappearances of Waliullah and Al Mukaddas, two Islamic University students allegedly picked up from Amin Bazar who remain missing.

The government denied having detained them, Tajul said, leaving the court with little scope to determine through habeas corpus proceedings whether they were being held illegally.

“The government says, ‘I did not pick them up.’ The court said, ‘We have nothing we can do,’” he said.

He also described the case of Golam Mortaza, for whom he filed a writ after receiving information that Mortaza was being held at a specific location inside the DGFI headquarters.

Tajul said that after the information was submitted to the court, the late Mir Quasem Ali received a message allegedly from RAB demanding that the writ be withdrawn. According to Tajul, the message said Mortaza would be released if the petition was withdrawn but could be killed otherwise.

Tajul said he informed Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah about the alleged threat before withdrawing the petition.

Mortaza was released near Rajshahi railway station the following night and subsequently arrested by police, Tajul said. Police claimed he had been in hiding for 44 days and that two firearms were recovered from him.

Tajul questioned how investigators had arrived at the precise 44-day period.

“How did the police determine that he had been hiding for exactly 44 days?” he said. “From what date did they begin counting those 44 days?”

The experience, he said, demonstrated why independent investigations were crucial in disappearance cases.

“If there is no proper investigation and no report comes before the court, what can the court do?” Tajul said.

He said allowing agencies implicated in alleged abuses to investigate those allegations violated a basic principle of natural justice.

“No man shall be a judge in his own cause,” he said. “They are investigating themselves.”

Tajul said the Ziaul prosecution also showed that crimes designed to leave little evidence could still be reconstructed years later through testimony and investigation.

He recalled Ziaul allegedly claiming that his actions would never be uncovered.

“He used to say, ‘Nobody will ever discover what I have done,’” Tajul said.

“Yet we have uncovered it piece by piece. Where did they shoot people? How did they shoot them? What did they say when blood and brain matter got onto their hands while they fired? We know all of it.”

Tajul said the emerging testimony should receive sustained public scrutiny, particularly as Bangladesh considers new legislation governing enforced disappearance and investigations into security agencies.

“Crime cannot simply be hidden,” he said.

--