International Crimes Tribunal-2 has ordered newspaper notices directing 30 fugitive defendants — including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former army chief Aziz Ahmed and former Inspector General of Police Benazir — to surrender by Sept. 16 in the case over the Shapla Chattar killings.
The three-member judicial panel of Tribunal-2, led by chairman Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, issued the order Thursday.
Ten previously arrested defendants, including Hasanul Haq Inu, Shahriar Kabir and Dipu Moni, were produced before the International Crimes Tribunal on Thursday morning. Journalist Farzana Rupa was not produced due to illness.
The tribunal had earlier, on July 27, formally accepted charges against 41 people, including Sheikh Hasina, and issued arrest warrants for those still at large.
The charges allege that on the night of May 5, 2013, the defendants conspired to cut off electricity and internet under cover of darkness and carried out a massacre aimed at wiping out the Hefazat-e-Islam movement. Prosecutors say a list of 61 people killed in the Shapla Chattar events has been compiled so far, of whom 58 have been identified. Those arrested in the case include former ministers Dipu Moni and Hasanul Haq Inu, along with Shamsul Haque Tuku, Ziaul Ahsan, A K M Shahidul Haque, Shahriar Kabir, Abdul Jalil Mondol, journalist Farzana Rupa and Mozammel Babu.