LIVE: CMP Commissioner's wireless message leaked; DB Harun suspended over 'absence in duty'

Stream Desk

The International Crimes Tribunal has issued arrest warrants against five people, including former IGP Javed Patwary.

The warrants were issued in a case alleging that seven people were killed in a militant 'drama' in Gazipur in 2016.

A three-member judicial panel led by Tribunal-1 Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumder gave the order on Monday.

What was the ‘drama’?

On 8 October 2016, a team of the Counter Terrorism Unit, with the help of the police, raided a two-storey house in Gazipur. 

• According to the prosecution, the seven were madrasa students subjected to enforced disappearance in 2016.
• They were later confined to a house in Gazipur, where they were killed over the allegation of being militants.
• The then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the deceased were involved in militant activities.
• Javed Patwary played a role as the head of Counter Terrorism & Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit during the operation.
• The rest of the accused who faced the arrest warrants are the then Special Branch chief Monirul Islam, former Gazipur Superintendent of Police Harun-or-Rashid, the then superintendent and assistant superintendent of police in Bogura.

What are the allegations

• According to tribunal sources, law enforcers picked up seven youths from different parts of the country and kept them confined to a house in Gazipur in October, 2016.
• Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), and the CTTC used 830 rounds of ammunition to stage the operation as a counter-terrorism raid, on October 8.
• After years of the orchestrated drive, the father of one of the victims, Ibrahim – one of the madrasa students from Jatrabari, Dhaka – lodged complaints with the ICT-1.
• On completion of investigations, the prosecution filed a new case with the tribunal against the accused.

Collected Photo

UNB

The government has suspended 18 police officials, including Detective Branch (DB) officer Mohammad Harun or Rashid, on charges of absence from duty for long without official permission.

The Public Security Division under the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification in this regard on Monday, signed by the division's Senior Secretary Nasimul Goni.

The notification stated that 18 officers have been suspended from service including Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) additional police commissioner and former DB Chief Mohammad Harun or Rashid, DMP joint police commissioner Sanjit Kumar Roy, Chattogram Range DIG Office additional DIG Rifat Rahman Shamim, Chattogram Range DIG Office police superintendent Kazi Ashraful Azim, Khulna Police Training Centre additional SP Hasan Arafat, Bangladesh Police Academy (Sardah) DIG Syed Nurul Islam, Bangladesh Police Academy SP Asaduzzaman, Khagrachhari APBN and Specialized Training Centre additional DIG Mohammad Zayedul Alam, APBN (Chittagong Hill Tracts) additional DIG Mohammad Farid Uddin, Rajshahi Range DIG Office additional DIG Shyamal Kumar Mukherjee, Rajshahi Range DIG Office supernumerary additional DIG Ayesha Siddika.

Cox's Bazar Eight APBN additional SP Rajon Kumar Das, Dhaka Police Staff College additional SP Mirza Salauddin, Police Staff College assistant SP Habibullah Dalal, Barishal Metropolitan Police additional deputy police commissioner Rashedul Islam, Dhaka Tourist Police additional DIG Moniruzzaman, Rangpur Metropolitan Police former Deputy Police Commissioner (currently with Dhaka Anti-Terrorism Unit) Abu Maruf Hossain, DIG (Commandant) Ashrafuluzzaman, are among the suspended police officials.

The suspended officials will, however, get allowances and other facilities during the suspension, the notification says.

Stream Report

Police have arrested Constable Omi Das on charges of leaking walkie-talkie instructions given by Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Commissioner Hasib Aziz, ordering his force to shoot at any person wielding a weapon – whether guns or knives – on 12 August.

Khulshi police arrested him on Sunday night in a case filed under the Official Secrets Act.

Who is the arrestee?

Omi Das is a member of the police telecom unit. He was working at Khulshi Police Station on assignment.

• A senior CMP official, who did not want to be named, said the commissioner’s sensitive instructions were supposed to remain confidential, but the leaks have now created discomfort at the highest levels of the administration.

Zoom Out: On 11 August, around 2am, alleged leaders and activists of the Awami League and its affiliated organisations took out a procession in the Ishan Mistrirhat Khalpar area under Bandar Police Station.

• When police arrived at the scene after receiving information, a clash broke out.
• Sub-Inspector (SI) of Bandar Police Station Abu Sayeed was seriously injured.

Zoom In: Following the incident, Commissioner Hasib Aziz gave strict instructions to all CMP units over wireless. He said that under the authority granted before 5 August 2024, mobile parties, patrol teams, DB units and check-post teams of each police station would go on duty with live ammunition and firearms.

• He said it was not possible to control the situation with rubber bullets alone.
• "If someone takes out a weapon in front of the police patrol team, whether sharp or a firearm, it must be resisted with bullets. Every police member has the right to self-defence under sections 96 to 106 of the Penal Code."
• He urged the best use of government-issued guns.
• A video of this wireless instruction went viral on social media, sparking a tirade of criticism.

Investigation follows: While there was surprise at the return of heavy-handed policing through the message, the leaks were even more heavily criticised at the top level. 

• Questions were raised about how the confidential message got out.
• Later, an investigation revealed that Constable Omi Das, posted at Khulshi Police Station, had recorded the wireless message and shared it.