Former police officer says Ziaul Ahsan ordered killings and disposal of ex-BDR members’ mutilated bodies

DHAKA, Aug 24: A former police officer has testified that sacked army officer Ziaul Ahsan directly ordered the killings of former BDR (now BGB) members following the 2009 Pilkhana massacre and instructed that their bodies be disposed of in rivers.

Md Nizam Uddin Howlader, then officer-in-charge of Sharankhola Police Station, gave the testimony before the International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday.

He described the case of former BDR member Nazrul Islam, who disappeared from Gopalganj after the Pilkhana tragedy and was later found dead on the bank of the Baleshwar River in Bagerhat in 2010.

Nizam said Nazrul’s mutilated body was found with his hands tied behind his back, a cement sack attached to him and his abdomen slit. The body was initially buried as unidentified but was later identified by his relatives.

According to testimony before the tribunal, former BDR members were allegedly given poisonous injections, taken by boat to the middle of rivers at night, tied with cement sacks and thrown into the water.

Ziaul Ahsan, a former RAB official, is currently in jail in connection with several cases involving enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity.