The International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) has given the prosecution team a day to question Major General (retd) Ziaul Ahsan, the former director general of the National Telecommunications Monitoring Center (NTMC).

The three-member tribunal, led by its president, Mr. Golam Mortuza Majumdar, issued the order today (November 12) after hearing a petition filed by the prosecution team represented by Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam.

Dismissed army official Ziaul, who was arrested in mid-August, faces charges of crimes against humanity committed during the student-led anti-discrimination movement and mass uprising in July and August.

There are numerous charges against him, Tajul said. “The ICT investigation agency received many complaints against him for murders and enforced disappearances and even found evidence linking him to such crimes.”

“He has already been arrested. Further interrogations are needed to uncover his role and identify those who carried out these crimes. We will interrogate him on a set date,” he added.

Ziaul, who was a two-star officer in the Bangladesh Army, was discharged from army service on August 6, a day after the Awami League government was ousted in a mass student-led uprising.

Until then, he was the head of the NTMC since 2022. Before that, he served in the Rapid Action Battalion.

Ziaul had taken refuge in the army fearing a threat to his personal security. The army handed him over to the police on the night of August 15. Police later arrested him in a case filed at New Market police station for killing 24-year-old Shahjahan Ali during the July 16 quota reform protests.

On October 16, he was also shown arrested in another case filed with the New Market police for plotting to kidnap and kill Col (retd) Md Tauhidul Islam Chowdhury in December 2018.