Three hours into the issuance of the arrest warrants, police yesterday detained two out of the eight war crimes suspects who were allegedly involved in the murder of several thousand people and destruction of numerous houses across Jamalpur district during the 1971 Liberation War.

Shamsul Haque, 75, and AKM Yusuf Ali, 83, were arrested at their homes in Nayapara and Phulbaria Old Bus Stand area of the town, reports our Jamalpur correspondent.

All the eight were involved with the Al-Badr, an anti-liberation force particularly responsible for the decimation of the country's intellectuals, according to the prosecution. The two were the first to be arrested over war crimes allegations in the district.

Police said they were trying to detain the rest including Ashraf Hossain, 64, who was president of the Mymensingh district unit of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing ofjamaat-e-lslami.

“The Al-Badr was first formed in Jamalpur, and Ashraf was its commander," prosecutor

Tapas Kanti Baul told The Daily Star.

He said the arrested duo had planned the killings and were complicit in almost every war-time atrocity in Jamalpur.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 ordered the arrests of the eight around 2:10pm, after the prosecution filed a petition saying there are possibilities the war crimes suspects would intimidate the witnesses, hampering an ongoing investigation, or they would flee.

The remaining five suspects are Prof Sharif Ahammed, 71, Abdul Mannan, 66, Abdul Bari, 62, Harun, 58, andAbul Hashem, 65.

The tribunal's investigation agency started probing the allegations against them on June 6,2013, but is yet to complete it.

After the prosecution petitioned the court to give it one more month for investigation, the tribunal led by Justice Obaidul Hassan fixed March 30 for the submission of a progress report on the probe.

Meanwhile, the tribunal-2 sent two war crimes suspects of Cox's Bazar-Md Rashid, 84, and Salamat Ullah Khan, 80-to jail yesterday, a day after their arrest.