STAFF CORRESPONDENT

A police sub-inspector told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday that he and his colleagues were threatened with dismissal if they refused to open fire on protesters during the “March to Dhaka” programme at Chankharpul on August 5 last year.

Testifying as a prosecution witness in a case against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and two of her senior aides, SI Ashraful Islam alleged that Shah Alam Mohammad Akhtarul Islam, then additional deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Ramna Zone, personally ordered police to shoot the demonstrators and verbally abused officers who hesitated.

Former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and ex-IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who has already pleaded guilty and turned an approver, are the other accused.

“ADC Akhtar told us, ‘You take government salaries and rations -- why won’t you fire? If you don’t, you’ll lose your jobs,’” Ashraful said. He said he refrained

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