To ensure that 14 of its officers charged with committing alleged offences such as enforced disappearances, secret detention and torture during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule, were kept under foolproof security, the Bangladesh Army on Monday (October 13) began putting up concertina fencing along the perimetre walls of an officers’ mess within Dhaka Cantonment.
The 14 officers who, until they were charged with committing criminal offences by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on October 8, served as major generals, brigadiers, colonels, lieutenant colonels and majors, will be moved to the VSOQ or Visiting Senior Officers’ Quarters mess before they are produced in the tribunal for the first time on October 22.
Photographs in the possession of Northeast News show labourers putting up metallic props and Y-shaped angles on which concertina wiring will be laid to ensure greater security and to hinder the entry of potential intruders. The fencing will be erected 7 metres above the surface of the perimeter wall.
At the same time, the Bangladesh Home Ministry, on October 12, issued a notification identifying a Dhaka Cantonment-located Military Engineering Service building as a sub-jail for trying the 24 officers, including the 14 serving officers. This building (No. 58) is located near Bashar Road.
This implies that all evidence will be presented in the “sub-jail” where public prosecutors and defence lawyers will also examine and cross-examine witnesses and the accused officers. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Prisons Jannatul Farhad led a team of officers on a visit to the VSOQ mess to oversee progress on the work related to the building’s security.
Even as work began on establishing a sub-jail and enhancing the security of the VSOQ mess, a Dhaka Police inspector on Monday visited the Army Headquarters to collect all relevant documents pertaining to the 24 officers.
The establishment of a “sub-jail” within Dhaka Cantonment is a compromise “face saver” for the Army as well as the ICT. This will ensure minimising the humiliation that the Army in general and the 24 officers may potentially undergo as under-trials in the ICT’s case against them.
