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Tongi and stopped near a level crossing surrounded by trees and bushes. “When I put my hand in to remove the sack, I noticed that it was not a sack but a body, and it was cold,” Imrul testified.

Shaken, he said they carried the body beside the railway track, after which Ziaul and others placed it directly on the line. A train soon passed over it.

“I was not myself for five to seven days … I could not eat properly.”

Imrul is the fifth prosecution witness in the case against Ziaul, who stands accused of orchestrating the enforced disappearance and murder of 104 people between 2010 and 2013.

While Imrul was giving his deposition, Ziaul, who was in the dock, smiled at times. He stood up once and told the tribunal that the chief prosecutor was encouraging the witness and requested that the witness be allowed to give his natural statement, otherwise it would be an injustice to him. The tribunal asked him to speak through his lawyer.

Imrul said he served as the former Rab Intelligence Wing chief’s bodyguard for about one year and four months between 2010 and 2012.

He said he accompanied Ziaul to numerous locations, including military and intelligence offices, government establishments, and the residences of influential individuals.

He claimed Ziaul maintained close ties with then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s security adviser Maj Gen (retired) Tarique Ahmed Siddique and frequented the residences of senior Awami League leaders.

Imrul also referred to events surrounding the disappearance of BNP leader Ilias Ali in April 2012.

He testified that on April 13 that year, he travelled in a microbus with Ziaul, Major Naushad and Squadron Leader Saif near Mohakhali Flyover while waiting for a “target” whose arrival they were monitoring via phone calls.

The operation was eventually called off and Imrul went on leave the next day.

While on leave, he learned through media reports that Ilias Ali had disappeared from the Mohakhali area. Upon returning to duty on April 23, he noticed what he described as a tense atmosphere at Rab headquarters.

According to his testimony, fellow personnel told him that Ziaul had destroyed armoury records and CCTV footage.

ICT Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam later clarified to the media that Ziaul did so to erase evidence as Ilias Ali was taken inside the Rab headquarters and later taken out of there.

Irmul further claimed that during a phone conversation he overheard, Ziaul told Tarique Siddique, “Sir, as per your instructions, I have done ‘golf’ with Ilias.”

The chief prosecutor later said that “golf” meant dumping Ilias Ali.

The witness said he did not know the full context of the conversation but heard Ziaul complain about his situation and suggest that he would rather be transferred to a remote place.

While describing another incident, the witness said he went on to the Sundarbans with Ziaul several times. He said in one such visit with Ziaul and Rab-8, he heard gunfire after their boat stopped.

“Ziaul sir, then Rab ADG Ops Mujib sir, Commander Sohail sir, and members of media were present. We proceeded further into the forest and saw two-three bodies lying there with gunshot wounds. This operation appeared to me to be a staged operation,” he added.

Imrul went on to describe another alleged killing involving two detainees taken from a Rab-4 safe house.

After travelling for about half an hour, the vehicles stopped at a location he identified as “Tin Matha Mor”.

There, he said, one of the detainees was taken out of a vehicle. The man’s hands and eyes were tied with a towel.

According to Imrul, Ziaul pointed a pistol at the detainee’s head and shot him dead.

The witness claimed that the victim’s hair caught fire after the gunshot and that those present laughed. He said they were later instructed to remove the towel.

A week or two later, he said, he was ordered to board another microbus carrying two detainees. The vehicle travelled through Tongi before stopping on the Kanchpur Bridge.

Imrul testified that he watched Ziaul take one detainee from the vehicle and shoot him twice in the head before dumping the body into the river below.

He also alleged that Major Naushad carried out the killing of the second detainee in the same manner.

The witness also described several trips to Barishal with Ziaul and members of Rab-8.

According to his testimony, detainees were taken by boat from the Char Duani Bazar area of Patharghata into the Baleshwar river near its estuary.

“There were times when two people were killed, sometimes three, sometimes four,” Imrul said.

He alleged that the victims were shot, cement sacks were tied to their bodies, and they were thrown into the river. Before the bodies were disposed of, he claimed, their stomachs were cut open with a commando knife.

Imrul further testified that detainees brought from Rab-1’s TFI cell were killed using various methods, including gunshots and injections.

Referring to the nationwide “Operation Rebel Hunt” launched after the 2009 BDR mutiny, he alleged that Ziaul told him eight to 10 fugitive BDR members had been killed because they had murdered army officers. According to the witness, some victims were allegedly killed by injection, while others were shot in the head and dumped into rivers.

Apart from the incidents he described in detail, he alleged that another 10 to 12 people were killed through injections administered either inside the TFI cell or inside vehicles.

At the end of his testimony, the serving warrant officer appealed for his protection.