On Wednesday, Bangladesh's International Crime Tribunal (ICT) ordered 15 serving army officers to be jailed over allegations of enforced disappearances during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure. The officers denied the charges. They were taken to a sub-jail within the Dhaka Cantonment after being brought before ICT-1 around 7:00 am under tight security.

The officers include Maj Gen Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossen; Brigadier Generals Md Jahangir Alam, Tofayel Mostofa Sarwar, Md Qamrul Hasan, Md Mahbub Alam, Md Mahbubur Rahman Siddique, and Ahmed Tanvir Majahar Siddique; Colonels Anowar Latif Khan, AKM Azad, Abdullah Al Momen, and Md Sarwar Bin Kashem; Lieutenant Colonels Md Moshiur Rahman Jewel, Saiful Islam Sumon, and Mohammad Redowanul Islam; and Major Rafat Bin Alam Moon.

Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam stated that law enforcement agencies arrested 15 individuals across three cases and presented them to the tribunal. Defense lawyer Barrister M Sarwar Hossain said the officers surrendered to the court out of respect for the law and that a bail request has been submitted, with a hearing scheduled for the next date.

Earlier, on October 8, the ICT had issued arrest warrants against 30 individuals, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in two separate cases concerning enforced disappearances under the Awami League government. The accused were ordered to appear in court by October 22. A three-member ICT bench, led by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Majumder, issued the orders. Other individuals named in the warrants include former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, retired Major General Tariq Ahmed Siddique, former police chief Benzir Ahmed, and 27 former or serving army officers.

The prosecution filed formal complaints in two disappearance cases with the ICT. In one case, 17 people, including Hasina and her adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddique, face charges of abducting opposition activists and detaining them at the secret Taskforce for Interrogation (TFI) cell, allegedly run by the Rapid Action Battalion, where the victims were reportedly tortured. This case includes five charges of crimes against humanity.

In the second case, Hasina, Tarique Siddique, and 11 others are accused of detaining victims at the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence’s (DGFI) Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) and torturing them. This case also contains five charges of crimes against humanity and names five former DGFI directors general among the accused.