Arrest warrants issued against ex-IGP Javed Patwary, 4 others

The International Crimes Tribunal has issued arrest warrants against former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. Javed Patwary and four others over the alleged extrajudicial killing of seven men during a 2016 counterterrorism operation in Gazipur.

The order was passed on Monday by a three-member bench of Tribunal-1, led by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Mojumder.

According to case details, on October 8, 2016, a team from the Counter Terrorism Unit, with support from local police, raided a two-storey house in the Patartek area of Nowagaon, under Gazipur City Corporation. Seven individuals were killed during the operation, which was officially described as an anti-militancy drive.

However, the prosecution claims the raid was staged. Chief Prosecutor Tazul Islam told BBC Bangla that the victims were abducted from different areas, held inside the building, and later killed in what he described as a "fictitious militant encounter."

Islam said none of the deceased had any proven links to militancy, citing findings from a subsequent investigation. The incident, he added, amounts to extrajudicial killing.

Among those named in the arrest warrants is Monirul Islam, the then Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and head of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit. Others reportedly include senior officials who led the 2016 operation.

In a separate development, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has begun surveillance on allegations involving Javed Patwary and 122 others. They are accused of receiving financial benefits and apartments in connection with the promotion of The Unfinished Memoirs, an autobiography by Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.