Mir Kashem to be quizzed at safe home

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Sunday permitted prosecutors to quiz Jamaat-e-Islami central leader Mir Kashem Ali at a “safe home” in the capital in connection with crimes against humanity in 1971.

The ICT-1 headed by Justice Md Nizamul Huq passed the order in response to a petition filed by the prosecution, Bangla daily Prothom Alo reports.

Kashem will be interrogated for a day between 10:00am and 5:00pm, the report added quoting the tribunal.

The prosecution however appealed to the court for a 3-day interrogation.

A counsel of the defendant and a doctor of a prison hospital will be present in an adjacent room during the questioning, the reports said.

The tribunal also ordered the prosecution to submit the investigation report against him on August 12.

The court also asked prosecution to produce the Jamaat leader before it on the day.

Kashem was arrested at a newspaper office in Dhaka on June 17 two hours within the tribunal had issued arrest warrant against him for his alleged involvement with crimes against humanity.

The tribunal later sent him to jail with a custodial warrant.

Kashem, who lived in Harirampur of Manikganj in Chittagong in 1971, was known as Mintu then.

In his youth, he was an activist of the Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Six top Jamaat leaders--Ghulam Azam, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Delawar Hossain Sayedee, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Quader Mollah--and two BNP leaders--Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Abdul Alim--are now being tried before the tribunals.