Tribunal sends Latif Talukder to jail custody

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 sent Abdul Latif Talukder, accused of committing crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation, to jail custody, reports BSS.
The first tribunal sent the 69-year-old Latif, hailing from village Solarkola under Kochua police station in Bagerhat, to jail custody after the investigation agency with the assistance of local police produced him before the tribunal Thursday.
The tribunal on June 10 issued warrant to arrest the accused along with Sirajul Haque, alias Siraj master and Khan Akram Hossain, accepting a plea of the prosecutor Syed Sayedul Haque.  Police arrested Latif on that very day.
The accused was produced before the court on the day and the sexagenarian man sought bail for himself as there was no advocate to defend him in the tribunal. Latif, father of five sons and two daughters, was all alone in the tribunal and repeatedly sought bail for himself citing his old age and poor health.
"We cannot give you bail like this. There are some procedures. You need an advocate to defend you in tribunal. Don't your relatives know that you are here?" asked Justice M Enayetur Rahim, chairman of the three-member panel of ICT-1.
After that, Latif said one of his sons came but he is outside the court premises. The tribunal then asked the investigation officer to make sure that the accused can meet his son and asked him to make the accused and his son to understand the whole procedure of hiring an advocate and to proceed to the next stage.
According to the prosecution, Latif was directly involved in the Shakharikathi genocide in 1971, in which 42 people were killed and many more were forced to convert.
In 2009, a local of Kochua upazila named Nimai Chandra Das lodged a case against Latif and many others with Bagerhat court for the incident.