Tribunal orders Ziaul Ahsan, Tareque Sayeed shown arrested in Salahuddin Ahmed disappearance case

The International Crimes Tribunal on Monday ordered three former senior Rapid Action Battalion officials — Ziaul Ahsan, Tareque Sayeed and Abdullah Al Momen — to be shown arrested in separate cases involving the alleged enforced disappearances of Home Minister and BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed and several others, as well as extrajudicial killings.

International Crimes Tribunal-1 and Tribunal-2 issued the orders on August 10 after granting separate applications filed by the prosecution.

The three are former RAB Additional Director General (Operations) Ziaul Ahsan, former RAB-11 commanding officer Lt Col Tareque Sayeed and former RAB Additional Director General (Operations) Col Abdullah Al Momen.

Ziaul is already an accused in a case before the tribunal, while Tareque Sayeed and Momen are accused in the Narayanganj seven-murder case.

Prosecutor Shaikh Mahadi said the prosecution had sought a production warrant last Thursday to show Ziaul arrested in connection with the alleged enforced disappearance of Salahuddin Ahmed.

Ziaul was serving as RAB’s additional director general for operations at the time of the alleged disappearance.

Tribunal-1 granted the application on Monday and ordered authorities to produce him before the court on August 27.

The same tribunal also granted the prosecution’s application to show Col Abdullah Al Momen arrested over the alleged enforced disappearance of student Md Zakir Hossain from Dhaka’s Adabor area.

Momen served as RAB’s additional director general for operations during July and August 2024.

The tribunal ordered that he also be produced before the court on August 27.

Zakir has remained missing since his alleged disappearance.

Momen is currently in prison in connection with a separate case involving the TFI cell.

Meanwhile, International Crimes Tribunal-2 dealt with cases involving the alleged disappearances of former Cumilla lawmaker and Laksam Upazila BNP President Saiful Islam Hiru and Laksam Municipality BNP President Humayun Kabir Parvez.

The prosecution sought to show Ziaul and former RAB-11 chief Tareque Sayeed arrested in connection with the disappearance of the two BNP leaders.

After the accused were produced before Tribunal-2 on Monday, the court granted the applications, ordered that they be shown arrested and sent them back to prison.

Hiru and Parvez remain missing.

Ziaul and Tareque Sayeed were also shown arrested in another case involving allegations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearance in Lakshmipur.

That case concerns the alleged extrajudicial killings of Jubo Dal leaders Asaduzzaman Babul, Abdul Mannan and Zahirul Islam Sumon, and the alleged enforced disappearance of BNP activist Bellal Hossain.

The tribunal ordered Ziaul and Tareque Sayeed shown arrested in that case as well and sent them to prison.