Four people, including a witness to the BDR killings, were allegedly blindfolded, shot and dumped into the Baleshwar River in 2010, Major (retd) Md Sabbir Rahman Osmani told the International Crimes Tribunal on Thursday.
He gave the testimony on Thursday before International Crimes Tribunal-1 in a case concerning allegations of enforced disappearance.
Sabbir testified that members of the intelligence wing of RAB-8 carried out the killings in May 2010 in the presence and under the orders of Ziaul Ahsan, who was then head of the RAB intelligence wing.
He said the four people were taken on a fishing trawler to the Baleshwar River near Charduani in Patharghata. Their faces and bodies were covered before they were allegedly shot.
According to his testimony, the victims’ abdomens were then slit open and cement sacks were tied to their bodies before they were thrown into the river.
Sabbir further testified that another person was killed and dumped in the river in 2010 using the same method.
He also said Alkas Majhi, a boatman whose trawler was allegedly used in Ziaul Ahsan’s “Golf Operation” in 2011, was forcibly disappeared and killed.
Former army chief Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan, along with army officers and RAB officials who allegedly witnessed the killings, has already testified against Ziaul Ahsan in the enforced disappearance case.
The testimony of the investigating officer will now be recorded, after which the case will move to the final stage with the presentation of arguments.