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directors general of Rapid Action Battalion Benazir Ahmed, M Khurshid Hossain, and Harun ar Rashid, and Lt Col (Retd) Muhammad Khairul Islam.

The state defence counsels are Md Amir Hossain, Hassan Imam, and Sujad Miah. Amir will replace Supreme Court senior lawyer ZI Khan Panna, who had earlier shown interest in representing Hasina but later withdrew.

Tajul told the tribunal that enforced disappearances had been “institutionalised” during the Awami League’s 15-year rule, alleging DGFI, Rab, DB, CTTC, NSI, and BGB units were involved. Dissidents were tracked through national monitoring systems, taken at night, and then held in joint interrogation cells and Rab’s TFI cells. Many bodies, he said, were later recovered from forests, rivers, the Sundarbans, and Barguna’s Char Duani.

He described the TFI cell as a secret detention site inside the Rab-1 compound in Uttara -- a two-storey block with 29 cells, including tiny “grave cells,” 10×3-ft rooms and 3×3-ft compartments where detainees were kept in inhumane conditions.

The facility allegedly contained soundproof torture rooms, an electric rotating chair, steel restraints, whips, and devices for genital electrocution. Photographs of mutilated bodies were hung on the walls, and victims were threatened with a similar fate.

Meanwhile, rejecting the plea for virtual appearance of the accused army officers in custody, the tribunal chair, Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, commented: “Where former chief justice, senior judges, former secretaries, and ministers have appeared in person before the courts to face trial, army officers cannot be allowed virtual appearance.”

“The trial for all will follow the laws of the country. Everyone has to appear before the court. The law is equal for all. Here we will examine whether they have committed the offence,” said the tribunal chair.

“We have the highest respect for the army, judiciary, administration, and all others,” he added, responding to submissions made by the defence for seven detained army officers.

Defence counsel Md Tabarak Hossain Bhuiyan argued that the officers, who he claimed were falsely implicated, should be allowed to appear virtually to avoid a “media trial” and protect their command roles.

Tajul opposed the plea, stressing that the accused were not on trial as army personnel. “This is not a trial against the patriotic army,” he said. “These accused committed the crimes while serving in Rab, which is a police unit. Outside military discipline, they committed heinous offences. They should not be allowed virtual attendance.”