Bangladesh has arrested a former chief of its national intelligence agency on charges of crimes against humanity committed during its 1971 war of independence.
Md Wahidul Haque, who served as the director general of the National Security Intelligence (NSI), was detained from capital Dhaka on Tuesday, hours after a warrant was issued by a special court.
Police said the 69-year-old was picked up from a house in the capital’s upscale neighbourhood of Baridhara, which houses several diplomatic missions.
“He has been arrested around 1:30pm on Tuesday after the International Crimes Tribunal’s warrant reached us,” said Abu Bakar Siddique, the officer-in-charge of the local Gulshan police.
Haque has been handed over to the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), a special court formed by the government for trying the 1971 war criminals.
Earlier in the day, the ICT issued a warrant against him. Prosecutor Tureen Afroz told the media they had pleaded the court to order his arrest.
In 2016, the ICT’s investigation arm opened a probe against Haque, who was an officer of the Pakistan army in 1971.
He stands accused of several charges, including being involved in the mass killing of 500 to 600 unarmed Bengalis and members of ethnic Santals at the Rangpur Cantonment on Mar 28, 1971.
Haque, who hails from the southern district of Madaripur, was commissioned as an officer of the Pakistan Army’s Cavalry Regiment in 1966.
In 1970, he was posted at the Rangpur Cantonment, where he served as the regimental adjutant of 29 Cavalry until Mar 30, 1971.
He was then transferred to Pakistan, where he had been until his return to an independent Bangladesh in 1974.
A repatriated officer of the Bangladesh Army, Haque was then sent to retirement.
In October 1976, he joined the Bangladesh Police as an assistant superintendent and gradually rose to the ranks becoming an additional inspector general.
Between 1991 and 1996, he was posted to National Security Intelligence as a director and later served as the agency’s acting director general.
Haque also served as the chief of the Bangladesh passport department for three years from 1997.
In 2002, he was once again brought back to the police and made the additional inspector general in 2005.