FROM PAGE 12

Additionally, the International Crimes Tribunal has been analysing documents abandoned at the Gono Bhaban after August 5, 2024. Among them, the ICT discovered two handwritten notes by Rab officers, dated 2015. Addressed to the director of Rab’s intelligence wing, the officers in the note refused to carry out unlawful orders.

“These weren’t formal letters but personal declarations, yet even these had clearly been forwarded to Sheikh Hasina, who kept them in her files from 2015 until she escaped to India in 2024,” the commission said.

Investigators have tracked down the officers who wrote the notes.

One of the notes read: “… when I was ordered to go on an operation by the Rab authority, I said that if there is any plan of extrajudicial killing or firing which is not permitted by the law of the country, I cannot take part in such an act.”

In this context, the commission’s report said, “The very existence of these notes, handwritten by junior officers yet deemed important enough to be placed before the then prime minister, underscores the extent of Sheikh Hasina’s personal oversight.

“The generals who headed DGFI [at that time] served as direct interlocutors between the armed forces and figures such as Sheikh Hasina and General Tariq Siddiqui when they ordered enforced disappearances.”

The report further added that senior generals, along with high-ranking police and security officials, received instructions directly from the political leadership.

It noted that Major General Kabir Ahmed, currently the commandant of the School of Infantry and Tactics, told the commission that while serving as DGFI’s Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Bureau (CTIB) director, he personally discussed the illegal detention of Brigadier General Abdullahil Amaan Azmi with two DGFI director generals -- Lt Gen Saiful Alam and Lt Gen Ahmed Tabrez Shams.

Both Alam and Shams were sent into forced retirement by the interim government on September 12, 2024.

A junior DGFI officer also told the commission that former CTIB director Brigadier General Ahmed Tanveer Mazher Siddiqui personally informed him of Brigadier Azmi and Michael Chakma’s presence at the JIC, in order to coordinate their food supply.

The commission expressed frustration in its report over the fact that the top brass remain at large.

On January 6, 2025, the ICT issued arrest warrants for 11 individuals, based on prima facie evidence of complicity in enforced disappearances. The list includes Sheikh Hasina, former defence and security adviser Major General Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui, former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed, five DGFI director generals, a DGFI director, and the former head of the police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit Md Asaduzzaman.

The DGFI generals named are: Lt Gen (retd) Md Akbar Hussain, Maj Gen (retd) Md Saiful Abedin, Lt Gen (retd) Mohammad Saiful Alam, Lt Gen (retd) Ahmed Tabrez Shams Choudhury, and Maj Gen (retd) Hamidul Haq.

The report states that these generals were in command at DGFI when individuals such as Brigadier Azmi, Lt Col Hasin, Ambassador Maroof Zaman, and others were detained inside the JIC.

“Based on repeated checks on the command structure, we can state with certainty that enforced disappearance at JIC during that period could not have occurred without the explicit knowledge and acquiescence of these generals.”

While Lt Gen Akbar has not been arrested, he has responded to summons and appeared twice before the commission, beginning in December last year.

“He expressed frustration over the cancellation of his passport. He made it clear that he felt cornered, without any avenue of departure from the country,” said the report.

The commission also summoned others from the list, including Maj Gen Hamid, in May 2025.

“On May 21, 2025, the army headquarters informed us in writing that, despite attempts, the summoned individuals could not be reached over phone and their current whereabouts were unknown,” it said.

Witnesses reported that several individuals, including those named, were residing in Dhaka cantonment immediately before the arrest warrants were issued. However, Maj Gen Abedin is reportedly residing in the United States.

The commission noted, “This raises serious concerns, particularly given that their passports had been revoked… There appeared to be no alternative travel documents, and the military authorities had been informed in advance of the impending warrants.”

It alleged that individuals who had been within the country in January 2025, including those in secured, well-known locations such as Dhaka cantonment, are now unavailable to face justice.

“Despite being within the reach of enforcement mechanisms, these high-ranking officers were permitted to abscond.”

The commission stated that the arrests are not only necessary for accountability but also to protect the institutional reputation of the security forces by revealing that certain officials acted on orders from outside the military hierarchy.

At a briefing last week, the commission clarified that the Armed Forces as an institution were not responsible for enforced disappearances, and that officers deputed to other agencies answering to the then prime minister, who was also the defence minister, were implicated.

“By facilitating the escape of individuals against whom lawful arrest warrants had been issued, they are committing new offences. This risks drawing more actors into institutional misconduct, expanding the circle of impunity, and deepening reputational harm,” the report said.