The Rapid Action Battalion has arrested Khalilur Rahman, a fugitive who was sentenced to death in a 1971 war crimes case.
RAB-14 and the Detective Branch arrested the 68-year-old in Savar on Tuesday night, the law enforcers said at a media briefing on Wednesday.
Khalilur is a native of Noagaon in Netrokona’s Durgapur.
In 2017, the International Crimes Tribunal indicted Khalilur, his brother Md Azizur Rahman, Ashok Ali, Shahnewaz and Ramzan Ali on five charges, including counts of murder, mass killing, illegal detention, torture, kidnapping, looting, arson, rape and attempted rape, according to Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of RAB’s Legal and Media Wing.
The other four suspects were arrested, but died in jail during the trial.
On Sept 13, 2022, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Khalilur to death on four charges and 10 years in prison on the fifth charge.
Khalilur absconded in 2015, when the investigation into the war crimes began, Moin said.
He went into hiding in 2017, when the court accepted the investigation report. He lived in several places in Dhaka, including Dakhinkhan, Turag and Uttara.
Khalilur lived alone and regularly changed houses to avoid the attention of law enforcers. He did not use a mobile phone, but his family would occasionally meet with him in secret.
His children would also give him money to meet his financial needs.
Khalilur was born in 1954 and was a member of the Islamic Students’ Association. During the war, he joined the anti-liberation Razakar force and eventually became an Al-Badr commander in Chandigarh Union.
He was convicted of war crimes in Netrokona’s Durgapur and the Kalmakanda Thana area during the war, including killing 22 people, raping one, attempting to rape another, kidnapping four and torturing two of them, looting 14-15 homes and setting fire to seven others.