He claimed Ziaul later acknowledged his role in Ilias Ali’s disappearance during a phone conversation and was involved in the execution of 10 to 12 BDR members under an operation launched after the Pilkhana uprising.
The International Crimes Tribunal, located in the old High Court building, Dhaka. File photo: Collected
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The International Crimes Tribunal, located in the old High Court building, Dhaka. File photo: Collected
Imrul Kayes, a former runner to the ex-director of RAB Intelligence Major General (retd) Ziaul Ahsan, today (21 June) testified before the International Crimes Tribunal that Ziaul orchestrated the enforced disappearance of BNP leader Ilias Ali and oversaw the killing of detained BDR members following the 2009 Pilkhana mutiny.
Testifying in the crimes against humanity case against Ziaul over allegations of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during the Awami League government’s tenure, Kayes described a pattern of secret detention, cross-border operations, and killings allegedly directed by the former RAB official.
He claimed Ziaul later acknowledged his role in Ilias Ali’s disappearance during a phone conversation and was involved in the execution of 10 to 12 BDR members under an operation launched after the Pilkhana uprising.
A two-member bench of International Crimes Tribunal-1, led by Justice Md Shafiul Alam Mahmud, recorded the testimony in the presence of Ziaul, the sole accused in the case.
The incriminating phone conversation
According to Kayes, who was attached to RAB Headquarters on deputation between 2010 and 2012, he accompanied Ziaul Ahsan, Major Naushad and Squadron Leader Saif to the Mohakhali Flyover area on 13 April 2012, where they waited for an unidentified “target” while Ziaul remained in repeated phone contact regarding the operation.
Kayes told the tribunal that the target never arrived and the operation was eventually called off. After dropping Ziaul at his residence, he went on nine days’ leave the following morning.
Ilias Ali went missing from Dhaka’s Banani area on 17 April 2012. While on leave, he learned from media reports on 18 April that Ilias had been abducted from Mohakhali.
Upon returning to RAB Headquarters on 23 April, Kayes said he found an unusually tense atmosphere. The witness said he later overheard Ziaul interrupt one phone call to answer another from “Tarique sir” (former security and defence adviser Maj Gen (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique).
During the conversation, Ziaul allegedly said: “I have golfed (forcibly disappear) Ilias Ali as you instructed. How can you treat me like this now? I am a commando. If this is how it is, then post me off to the jungle.”
The witness also alleged that Ziaul ordered the destruction of several CCTV recordings at RAB Headquarters following Ilias Ali’s disappearance.
“Killing network spanned India and Bangladesh,” says chief prosecutor
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam said the testimony also described what he called a cross-border killing operation in Jaflong.
According to the witness, Ziaul Ahsan led a team – including Kayes and several other army officers – to Jaflong with two detainees from RAB’s TFI Cell. There, plainclothes individuals arriving from India brought two additional detainees, after which an exchange took place.
“Ziaul Ahsan shot the two individuals brought from India in the head on the roadside, killing them,” the chief prosecutor said. “The accused maintained a killing network that extended across both Bangladesh and India.”
However, he added that it had not been possible to verify whether the two individuals involved in the exchange were Indian or Bangladeshi nationals.
The chief prosecutor further said Kayes testified that around 10 to 12 BDR members were killed under Ziaul’s supervision during “Operation Rebel Hunt” following the Pilkhana mutiny. According to the witness account presented by the prosecution, the detainees were allegedly executed either through lethal injections or gunshots before their bodies were disposed of in rivers.
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