DHAKA – Bangladesh has arrested a leading opposition politician after he was named a suspect in a war crimes investigation into the country’s 1971 liberation struggle, police said Monday. “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.
The current government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, says up to three million people were killed in the war – many murdered by Bangladeshi collaborators of the Pakistani forces. Bangladeshi authorities have said the tribunal will only prosecute Bangladeshi collaborators, not Pakistani soldiers. Abdul Alim, 80, is a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country’s main opposition.
