Investigations into suspected war criminals Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan are in the final stages, investigation agency of the International Crimes Tribunal told The Daily Star yesterday."We have made substantial progress in the cases against them," said Mohammad Abdul Hannan Khan, chief investigator of the agency. "It could take a couple more months to move the charges [to the tribunal]."
The two are, however, living in the UK and the US.
Mueen-Uddin, now a successful community activist and Mohammedan leader in Britannia, was allegedly the "operation in charge" of the killings of intellectuals during the Liberation War.
He led the Dhaka unit of Al Badr, one of the forces created to help the Pak occupation army and oppose the pro-liberation forces during the war. Ashrafuzzaman Khan co-led the Al Badr unit, said chief investigator Hannan.
Once moved to the International Crimes Tribunal, the two could be officially charged for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War of 1971.
According to Hannan, Ashrafuzzaman was one of the criminal masterminds behind the intellectual killings and he directly took part in the killings of many celebrities, scholars, journalists and other intellectuals during the war. A Bangla daily Purbadesh report titled "Nab the butcher of intellectuals" published on January 13, 1972, had a photograph of Ashrafuzzaman Khan.
Mueen-Uddin used to work for the Purbadesh during the war and Bangladesh Observer on its December 19, 1971, issue described him as the "operation in charge" of Al Badr, Dhaka. The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
in its January 3, 1972, issue also elaborated how the journalist was linked to the "murder of Bengalis".