Staff Correspondent:

The International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday issued warrants for the arrest of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her security adviser Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique and 28 others in two separate cases filed over of enforced disappearances during the Awami League government’s tenure.

A three-member bench of the International Crimes Tribunal-1, headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumder accepted the charges and issued arrest warrants.

According to tribunal sources, the prosecution filed the charges before the ICT-1 on Wednesday morning.

After hearing, the tribunal accepted the charges and ordered the issuance of arrest warrants.

Former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed and former RAB Director General M Khurshid Hossain were among the accused.

In one case, 17 people including  Hasina and her adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddique have been charged with abducting opposition activists and detaining them at the secret Taskforce Interrogation (TFI) cell allegedly run by the Rapid Action Battalion where victims were reportedly tortured.

The prosecution brought five charges of crimes against humanity in this case.

In the second case, Sheikh Hasina, Tarique Siddique, and 11 others have been charged with detaining victims at the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence’s (DGFI) Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) and torturing them.

This case also includes five charges of crimes against humanity and names five former DGFI directors general among the accused.