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ISLAMABAD: A retired Bangladeshi army chief has testified that Indian intelligence operatives maintained regular access to military intelligence facilities, working from dedicated rooms and providing target lists, according to his statement written for a local news outlet. Retired Gen. Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan disclosed this in testimony before the International Crimes Tribunal-1 and in an article he wrote for Prothom Alo on Monday. He stated that the Indian intelligence operatives worked from dedicated rooms and provided target lists to Bangladeshi forces. His statement came as he appeared as a prosecution witness in war crimes proceedings against former Maj. Gen. Ziaul Ahsan. &quot;Some people from the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) under the umbrella of Major General (Retd.) Tariq Ahmed Siddique regularly visited the DGFI office and were allowed to work in one of the seven meeting rooms there,&quot; Bhuiyan wrote. The former army chief said RAW would identify individuals as militants and provide lists to Bangladesh&#39;s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, according to his article. Bhuiyan stated he did not know whether DGFI took effective action on these intelligence reports. Testimony in crimes against humanity case Bhuiyan concluded two days of witness testimony on Monday at the tribunal, which has charged Ahsan with crimes against humanity involving the disappearance and murder of more than 100 people during the previous government led by the Awami League party, according to his published account in Prothom Alo. The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Majumder, set Feb. 18 for cross-examination by defense lawyers, as reported in tribunal proceedings. Officers describe paid killings The retired general wrote that he confronted multiple junior officers about killings conducted while assigned to the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite Bangladeshi security force. In one encounter, an officer returning from RAB duty admitted killing six people &mdash; two directly and four others while present, according to Bhuiyan&#39;s article. &quot;I asked him, how much money did you get for each kill? He replied, ৳10,000&quot; &mdash; approximately $85 at current exchange rates &mdash; Bhuiyan wrote. The officer said he donated the money to his village mosque. A lieutenant colonel told Bhuiyan he killed six people on superior orders, according to the article. When Bhuiyan asked whether the officer would follow an order to consume excrement, the lieutenant colonel said killing unarmed civilians was worse, but fell silent when pressed on why he complied. &quot;I asked him, which is worse, killing an unarmed civilian or eating hagu?&quot; &mdash; a Bengali word for excrement &mdash; Bhuiyan wrote in Prothom Alo. &quot;He said, killing an unarmed civilian. I asked him, then why did you do it? He remained silent in reply.&quot; A major who had previously served under Bhuiyan justified killing alleged criminals by calling them &quot;anti-social&quot; with no right to live, according to the article. Bhuiyan wrote that he later saw the same officer in a Facebook post standing with Col. Zia at Shapla Chattar &mdash; a public square in Dhaka &mdash; following a deadly security force crackdown on a religious rally organized by the religious&nbsp;group Hefazat-e-Islam. Body disposal in rivers Bhuiyan wrote that he heard RAB personnel would cut open victims&#39; stomachs, remove intestines, tie bodies with bricks and stones, and submerge them in rivers. The tribunal has charged Ahsan with involvement in 50 killings at the Baleshwar River estuary in southern Bangladesh between 2010 and 2013, according to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the state news agency. Halting officer assignments The former army chief wrote that he stopped assigning officers to DGFI, the Border Guard Bangladesh &mdash; a paramilitary force &mdash; and RAB after determining that so-called &quot;crossfire&quot; killings, a term used to describe extrajudicial executions, would not stop. &quot;Many reminded me that what I was doing was tantamount to rebellion. My only answer was that I would have to answer to Allah on the Day of Judgment,&quot; Bhuiyan stated. He received repeated phone calls from the military secretary to the prime minister requesting officer assignments, according to his article. RAB Director General Benazir Ahmed personally visited Bhuiyan&#39;s office to request officers, but received no commitment, he wrote. Then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina &mdash; who led the Awami League government &mdash; directly asked Bhuiyan to provide officers to RAB during a hotel inauguration in Chittagong, Bangladesh&#39;s second-largest city, according to his account. Bhuiyan wrote that he cited officer shortages and maintained this position until retirement despite continued pressure. Call for institutional dissolution Bhuiyan wrote in Prothom Alo that he wants RAB abolished immediately or all military personnel withdrawn from the force. He also called for dissolving DGFI, writing that the intelligence directorate &quot;has lost its legitimacy to exist after giving birth to a bad culture like a mirror house.&quot; &quot;No matter how much we try to deny it, the army has become corrupt,&quot; Bhuiyan wrote. &quot;We should not waste the opportunity that has come to us for self-purification under any circumstances.&quot; He argued that prosecuting guilty officers would enhance rather than diminish military honor. He wrote that successful accountability would show &quot;the army never spares guilty people.&quot; Indictment details The tribunal indicted Ziaul Ahsan on Jan. 14 on three counts of crimes against humanity, according to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha and the tribunal prosecution. The charges include the July 11, 2011, killing of three people in Gazipur&#39;s Pubail area allegedly in Ahsan&#39;s presence; 50 killings at the Baleshwar River estuary; and another 50 deaths in the Sundarbans &mdash; a vast mangrove forest spanning Bangladesh and India &mdash; and Bagerhat regions between 2010 and 2013 under the pretext of suppressing &quot;forest robbers,&quot; as reported by BSS. Ziaul Ahsan pleaded not guilty when charges were read, according to tribunal proceedings. Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam told the tribunal that investigators have &quot;exceptionally strong evidence&quot; regarding Ahsan&#39;s leadership roles in the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre and RAB, as reported by the prosecution. The trial formally began Feb. 8, with Bhuiyan appearing as the prosecution&#39;s first witness, according to court records.

Retired Gen. Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan testified that Indian intelligence operatives maintained regular access to military intelligence facilities within Bangladesh before the country’s International Crimes Tribunal-1. (Iqbal Karim/Facebook)

Bangladesh

His statement comes as he appeared as a prosecution witness in war crimes proceedings against former Maj. Gen. Ziaul Ahsan.

Retired Bangladesh army chief says Indian intelligence had access to military facilities

ISLAMABAD: The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and ex-Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death for crimes against humanity linked to the July Mass Uprising. A three-judge bench led by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder issued the ruling. The panel said the evidence supported every charge brought against the two former officials. Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun was also convicted. He received a five-year sentence after giving extensive testimony as a state witness. The tribunal began announcing the verdict at 12:50 pm local time. Justice Mozumder said the ruling ran 453 pages and was divided into six sections. He told the courtroom that only a summarized version would be read aloud and that the final section would be delivered by him. He estimated the process would take roughly 40 minutes. Security was tightened around the courthouse, with personnel from the Bangladesh Army, Border Guard Bangladesh, the Rapid Action Battalion and the police stationed at all entry points. According to BSS, this is the first case before the tribunal involving the state&rsquo;s actions during the July Mass Uprising to reach a final judgment. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/4e8bb2bb-b041-4372-a5c9-ca70ac6cf87c-Bangladesh.jpg" alt="Bangladesh.jpg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic" style="line-height: 2;">DHAKA: Border Guard Bangladesh personnel stand guard outside the High Court in Dhaka on November 12, 2025. -- Photo by AFP/File</figcaption></figure> Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising that ousted her in August 2024, according to AFP. Up to 1,400 deaths &nbsp;The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power, deaths that were central to her trial.&quot;Justice will be served according to the law,&quot; chief prosecutor Tajul Islam, earlier told reporters when the verdict date was set last week. Charges against Hasina&nbsp;Prosecutors have filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, amounting to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.According to BSS, the five charges framed against the ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and former inspector general of police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, are as follows: 1. Inciting the crimes through provocative speech: Following Sheikh Hasina&#39;s speech at a press briefing on July 14, 2024, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, and other senior officials of the then government abetted, assisted and were complicit in launching a severe and coordinated attack on unarmed student protesters. 2. Ordering the extermination of protesters using lethal weapons: Sheikh Hasina is accused of ordering the extermination of student demonstrators through the use of helicopters, drones, and lethal weapons. The then home minister and the then IGP facilitated and implemented this directive by issuing instructions to law enforcement personnel under their command. 3. Killing of BRUR student Abu Sayed: This charge concerns the July 16, 2024, killing of Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayed, who was shot multiple times at close range in the chest. 4. Chankharpul killings: The shooting and killing of six unarmed protesters in Dhaka&#39;s Chankharpul area on August 5, 2024, has been brought as a separate count of crimes against humanity. 5. Ashulia mass killing: The prosecution also cited the shooting of six student protesters in Ashulia on August 5, 2024 - five of whom were later burned after death, while the sixth was allegedly set on fire while still alive. &#39;Preordained&#39;&nbsp;The trial has heard months of testimony in absentia alleging she ordered mass killings. She has called the trial a &quot;jurisprudential joke&quot;, according to AFP. Her co-accused include former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal -- also a fugitive -- and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who is in custody and has pleaded guilty. Hasina was assigned a state-appointed lawyer for the trial, but she refused to recognize the court&#39;s authority and said she rejected all charges. Hasina said in a written interview with AFP in October that a guilty verdict was &quot;preordained&quot; and that she would &quot;not be surprised when it comes&quot;. High alert&nbsp;Security forces surrounded the court when the verdict date was set on Thursday, with armored vehicles manning checkpoints. Dhaka Municipal Police spokesman Talebur Rahman said the force would be on high alert for Monday&#39;s verdict, with checkpoints at key intersections across the capital. Almost half the city&#39;s 34,000 police would be on duty, he said. Interim interior ministry chief Jahangir Alam Chowdhury told reporters the government was prepared and there was no cause for concern. Crude bombs have been set off across Dhaka this month, mainly petrol bombs hurled at everything from buildings linked to interim leader Muhammad Yunus&#39;s government to buses and Christian sites. Bangladesh&#39;s foreign ministry summoned India&#39;s envoy to Dhaka this month, demanding that New Delhi block the &quot;notorious fugitive&quot; Hasina from talking to journalists and &quot;granting her a platform to spew hatred&quot;. Ruthless bid to maintain power&nbsp;She said in October she &quot;mourned all the lives lost during the terrible days&quot; when students were gunned down in the streets. Her comments enraged many who said she had made a ruthless bid to maintain power at all costs. Hasina also warned that the ban on her former ruling party, the Awami League, by the interim government was deepening the political crisis in the country of 170 million people before the elections.

In this handout photograph taken and released on July 25, 2024 by Bangladesh Prime Minister's Office, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses the media at a vandalized metro station in Mirpur, after the anti-quota protests. -- Photo by AFP/File

Bangladesh’s tribunal sentenced the former PM and others to death for crimes against humanity linked to the 2024 July Mass Uprising and subsequent killings.

Articles tagged with "Crimes against humanity trial"

Retired Bangladesh army chief says Indian intelligence had access to military facilities

Bangladesh court sentences ex-PM Hasina to death for crimes against humanity