Presidium Member of HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party and Trishal lawmaker Abdul Hannan was arrested yesterday for his alleged involvement in war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War.
Gulshan police arrested Hannan, 80, from his residence and son Rafique Sazzad from his office in the same area in the afternoon, said Motijheel zone Assistant Commissioner Rafiqul Islam.
Police made the arrests after the International Crimes Tribunal, led by Justice Anwarul Islam, issued arrest warrants earlier in the day against eight persons including the duo in a case filed on May 19 by the wife of a martyred freedom fighter.
Rahima Khatun filed the case with a trial court in Mymensingh against Hannan and two others – al-Badr members Fokruzzaman and Golam Rabbani. Later, the court took the case into cognisance and sent it to the tribunal.
The tribunal investigators found the involvement of five other persons in the incident and sought arrest warrants against them.
Mymensingh police yesterday arrested Rabbani and another accused Hormuz Ali in the case.
The case statement says that in October 1971, Peace Committee leader Hannan along with Fokhruzzaman and Rabbani held freedom fighter Abdur Rahman from Gouripur upazila and took him to a Pakistan Army camp at Bangladesh Agriculture University in Mymensingh. Later Abdur Rahman was tortured to death.
Earlier, two JaPa leaders – former MP Abdul Jabbar and former state minister Syed Mohammad Kaiser – were sentenced to death for committing crimes against humanity.