Bangladesh has arrested a leading opposition politician after he was named a suspect in a war crimes investigation into the country's 1971 struggle, police said Monday. Abdul Alim was detained in north-western Joypurhat district late Sunday on the orders of the International Crimes Tribunal, which was set up to prosecute war crimes committed during the bloody nine-month conflict against Pakistan.
"The tribunal has accused him of war crimes including genocide, arson and looting. He was arrested and sent to the capital Dhaka," local police chief Mozammal Huq told AFP. Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal was formed last year to try people suspected of atrocities during the country's campaign for independence. The current government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, says up to three million people were killed in the war.
Bangladeshi authorities have said the tribunal will only prosecute Bangladeshi collaborators, not Pakistani soldiers. Alim, 80, is a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country's main opposition. He was a minister in the first cabinet of the BNP's founder, military strongman Ziaur Rahman, in 1976.
He is the second BNP politician to be arrested on charges of war crimes. Four leading figures of the country's main Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, have been detained on similar charges. The BNP and Jamaat have dismissed the tribunal as a political show trial.
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