A criminal court in Bangladesh indicted 22 persons, including four opposition politicians, for the murder of four national leaders inside a prison 25 years ago, court officials said on Friday. Eight accused persons were present in the heavily guarded court room in the capital Dhaka when judge Ahmed Jamil Mostafa read out the indictments late on Thursday evening, the officials said.
Fourteen other accused, all former army officers, had fled the country in 1996 as the authorities planned to put them on trial for the cold blooded massacre on Novmber 3 1975. The four killed in the Dhaka Central Jail were former acting president Syed Nazrul Islam, former prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad and former cabinet ministers Mansur Ali and Ahm Kamaruzzaman. The hearing in the court is scheduled to start on November 20 nearly two years after police had revived the case. Two of the accused politicians K M Obaidur Rahman and Nurul Islam Manzur belong to the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The four former army officers, who were present in the court room during the indictments, were already condemned to death by another criminal court for their involvement in the 15 August 1975 assassination of Bangladesh's founder president Sheikh Mujib Ur Rahman and most of his close family members. The victims of the massacre inside the prison were among Mujib's top political aides who were overthrown by the rebel army officers. The return to power of Mujib's daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 1996 helped the removal of legal hurdles for holding the trial.
Bureau Report