Former police officer testifies Ziaul Ahsan ordered killings, disposal of ex-BDR members mutilated bodies

A former police officer on Sunday said that sacked army officer Ziaul Ahsan directly ordered the killings of former BDR (now BGB) members after the 2009 Pilkhana massacre, and their bodies were taken to the middle of the rivers to dispose of.

Md Nizam Uddin Howlader, the then officer-in-charge of Sharankhola Police Station, provided the gruesome details as he testified against Ziaul before the International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday.

Nizam specifically described the killing of former BDR member Nazrul Islam who had gone missing from Gopalganj after the Pilkhana tragedy, and was found on the bank of the Baleshwar River in Bagerhat in 2010.

Nizam told the tribunal that he was at the Bagerhat district superintendent of police’s office on official duty at around 3pm on May 17, 2010 when a constable from Sharankhola Police Station called and reported that the mutilated body of a man was lying on the bank of the Baleshwar River in the Chal Rayenda area. A cement sack was tied around his body, his abdomen had been slit, his head was covered with a piece of cloth, and both his hands were tightly bound behind his back.

Nizam then instructed Sub-Inspector (SI) Iqbal to investigate the matter. SI Iqbal went to the spot, prepared the inquest report and arranged for the body to be sent to Bagerhat Sadar Hospital for an autopsy.

As it was already night, the body was kept at the police station overnight. The following morning, it was sent to Sadar Hospital for an autopsy.

As the identity of the deceased could not be established, the body was eventually buried as unidentified through Anjuman Mufidul.

Two days after the burial, an unidentified man called the police station and said the recovered body might be that of his missing brother.

He told police that his brother had been abducted from Kotalipara in Gopalganj around two or three months earlier and that a case had also been filed at Kotalipara Police Station.

Four or five days after receiving the information, the victim’s two brothers, wife and uncle went to the police station. After seeing the bloodstained shirt and pants of the deceased, which had been preserved at the police station, they identified the body as that of Nazrul Islam.

The relatives sought to take the body to their area for burial. However, as the body had already been buried as unidentified and its identity had not been legally confirmed, the then OC told them that arrangements could be made to recover the body through the district administration after completing the legal process for DNA testing.

After the Pilkhana tragedy in 2009, Nazrul reportedly had been living in hiding and working as a medical assistant at a clinic in Gopalganj. He then suddenly disappeared.

According to statements given by witnesses before the tribunal, BDR members were allegedly killed in specific ways on the orders of Ziaul Ahsan.

They were allegedly administered poisonous injections that left their bodies numb. They were then taken by boat late at night to the middle of a river. A cement sack was placed underneath a victim, another sack was placed over the victim, and the person was then bound with rope.

Ziaul, the former Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) official is currently in jail in connection with several other cases involving enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity.