Dhaka tribunal orders formal arrest of 14 serving army officers in Bangladesh

The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal has also ordered the publication of notices in newspapers calling for the appearance of fugitive former leader Sheikh Hasina and her security adviser, as well as others, in the cases.

Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam shared the development with reporters after the court ruling on three separate cases.

Defense lawyer Barrister M Sarwar Hossain told reporters after the court order that those who actually committed the crime, including murder and forced disappearance, have fled to neighboring India. Officers who surrendered are “innocent” and it will be proved through the court, he added.

The major move comes amid calls for punishing those who were involved in serious crimes following the last 15-year rule of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and killings in last July's uprising.

Hasina has been in exile since Aug. 5 after being ousted in the uprising that left 1,400 people dead.

Earlier, the army officials, serving top posts of the Hasina government, were accused in cases of forced disappearance and murder cases, among others. They were arrested by the army and kept in a house in a Dhaka cantonment that is announced as a sub-jail by the Home Ministry.

However, the victims in the cases, talking to reporters, criticized the move of keeping the army officers in a special jail in a cantonment, adding that it has created disparity and fear of getting justice.