Shapla massacre case: Latif Siddiqui sent to Jail

The International Crimes Tribunal on Thursday ordered former minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui jailed in connection with the 2013 Shapla Chattar massacre, a day after he was arrested at his Gulshan residence over crimes-against-humanity charges tied to the deadly crackdown on a Hefazat-e-Islam rally.

Siddiqui was detained by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch on Wednesday evening and brought before International Crimes Tribunal-2, which issued the detention order following Thursday's hearing. He was among 41 individuals, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, formally charged by the tribunal over the mass killings that unfolded when security forces cleared a Hefazat-e-Islam gathering at Motijheel's Shapla Chattar on 5 May 2013--a rally called to demand action against those accused of blasphemy, which descended into widespread violence and unrest across Motijheel and Paltan before being dispersed in a joint night-time operation. Arrest warrants were separately issued for 31 absconding defendants, among them Siddiqui, who had remained a fugitive until his capture this week.

The formal charges were accepted by a three-member panel led by Tribunal-2 chairman Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, alongside judges Md. Manjurul Bashid and Nur Mohammad Shahriar Kabir, in an order issued Monday. Following that ruling, the chief prosecutor told reporters that charges had been accepted against all 41 accused, with formal indictment and trial proceedings to follow once the necessary legal formalities are completed. The tribunal has set 16 August for the next hearing, when ten defendants currently in custody across related cases have been ordered to appear.

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The case traces back to a complaint filed with the tribunal on 20 August 2024 by Hefazat-e-Islam joint secretary-general Azizul Haque Islamabadi, more than a decade after the violence that has remained one of the most contested episodes of the Awami League's tenure in power.