By IANS,
Dhaka : Two opposition activists were Saturday arrested from Rajshahi in western Bangladesh for allegedly killing 15 people during the country’s freedom movement 38 years ago.
Charged with committing war crimes on behalf of the erstwhile East Pakistan regime, they were placed in police custody, Star Online said.
Daud Hossain, 70, and Nur-e Anwar, 65, were detained by the police from their homes in Bamundighi Berabari of Mohanpur sub district around dawn. Rajshahi judicial magistrate’s court Saturday remanded them to five-day police remand.
Hossain is a Jamaat-e Islami (JeI) activist while Anwar belongs to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), according to Aminul Islam, a BNP organising secretary.
According to the case filed in June last year, On Nov 30, 1971 the two men allegedly abducted 15 people, who were helping freedom fighters at Bogpara Mugroil of Mohanpur. The next morning, all 15 were tied together and shot dead.
Seventeen others have also been named in the case.
BNP and JeI are part of the opposition alliance that ruled during 2001-06, but lost badly in last December’s election.
JeI had opposed the freedom movement and some of its top leaders are accused of personally leading armed gangs like Razakars, Al Shams and Al Badr, engaging in loot, rape and killing of those who sided with the freedom fighters.
This is one of the many cases filed several years after the crime as the evidence has been gathered by NGOs and groups seeking to bring to justice those responsible for the killing of unarmed civilians during 1971.
Earlier this month, the Bangladesh parliament passed a resolution to take measures to bring to book those it said were “war criminals”.