The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) 1 on Thursday accepted war crime charges against Jamaat-e-Islami Acting Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam.
The three-member panel led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir took the formal charges against the Jamaat leader into cognisance at about 11:20am.
Meanwhile, the tribunal fixed August 18 for the hearing on charge framing.
On July 18, the prosecution submitted formal charges against war crimes suspect Azharul Islam to the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) 1, with six charges of crimes against humanity.
Prosecutors AKM Saiful Islam and Nurjahan Begum Mukta submitted the 300-page formal charges with the ICT Registrar’s Office at about 11am.
Earlier on July 8, the probe body of the ICT found ATM Azharul Islam’s involvement in crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War, including genocide, murder, torture, rape, arson, looting, abduction, and forced confinement.
Mohammad Abdul Hannan Khan, chief of the investigation agency, told journalists in a briefing at his Dhanmondi office that they found Azhar’s involvement in six incidents.
During the briefing, the probe agency’s chief said their team, led by SM Idris Ali, investigated war crimes allegations against Azhar for one year, three months and 11 days to finalise the 300-page report.
The report includes around 750 pages of government records, books and newspapers listed as evidence.
Their probe reportedly found that Azhar, who was a student at Carmichael College during the war, was involved in war crimes as a member of the Islami Chhatra Sangha, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.
He then enrolled in al-Badr, an auxiliary collaborative force of the Pakistan occupation army.
The home ministry of erstwhile Pakistan, in its fortnightly secret report on the situation of East Pakistan sent to Karachi during the war, said Azhar was active against freedom fighters.
The probe body submitted copies with their report of these fortnightly correspondences from April to November 1971.
Hannan alleged that Azharul was involved in the genocide in Rangpur, where around 1,225 people were killed.
He was allegedly also involved in killing four people, abducting 17, raping one, confining 12, torturing 13 and looting and torching numerous houses in the district.
Azhar allegedly killed six lecturers at Carmichael College, including Chityaranjan Ray from the mathematics department, Shah Solaiman Ali from the Urdu department, and Kalachand Ray and his wife from the chemistry department.
Police arrested Azhar – who opposed the tribunal since its formation, terming it a government move to split the nation – from his Moghbazar residence on August 22 last year, after the first tribunal issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.
On May 8, the tribunal ordered the submission of the probe report by June 30, and on that day asked the prosecution to place formal charges by July 15.
The prosecution submitted progress reports to the tribunal regarding the ongoing investigation on February 5, October 14 and December 2 last year and March 19 this year.
