1971 war crimes fugitive arrested in Bangladesh

Bangladesh's elite security forces have arrested a person who was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971, police said on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Abu Muslim Mohammad Ali from Demra area on the outskirts of Dhaka on Saturday.

"He was an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971 during the (1971) Liberation War when he was involved in mass murders, arsons, rapes and lootings in (northwestern) Gaibandha,” a RAB statement said.

Ali’s arrest came nearly 10 days after RAB arrested two war crimes convicts in separate raids in capital Dhaka’s Mohammadpur and Mugda areas.

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RAB is an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police. This elite force consists of members of the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Border Guard Bangladesh, Bangladesh Civil Service and Bangladesh Ansar.

Earlier on February 1, RAB troops arrested 70-year-old Abdul Majid from southwestern Madaripur for carrying out atrocities in northeastern Netrokona as an activist of Jamaat, a party which was opposed to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.

All the arrested convicts were on the run, RAB said.

On March 26, 1971, Bangladesh - then East Pakistan - declared its independence from West Pakistan.

According to official figures, Pakistani troops, aided by local collaborators, killed an estimated 3 million people, raped about 200,000 women and forced millions more to leave their homes during the bloody nine-month guerrilla war.