By Sumi Khan

Dhaka, Feb 1 (IANS): The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has said that it arrested two fugitive convicts, who were sentenced to death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

The arrestees are -- Md Mokhlesur Rahman Mukul, 67, and Nakib Hossain alias Adil Sarker, 69, were sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 on January 23, 2023, confirmed RAB officials on Tuesday to IANS.

They were arrested in separate drives carried out in Dakshinkhan of the capital and Ashulia, on the outskirts of Dhaka city, on Monday night.

Earlier, the ICT-1 on December 5, 2018, framed six charges for committing crimes against humanity and on February 18, 2019, started recording depositions of the witnesses. The court on different hearing dates examined a total of 19 witnesses in the case.

RAB legal and media wing Director, Commander Khandaker Al Moin confirmed the development to IANS on Tuesday evening.

He said the two fugitive convicts were arrested in separate drives by RAB-2 on January 30.

The ICT-1 on January 23 sentenced six convicts, including Nakib and Mokhlesur to death, the RAB official said.

They went into hiding in 2015 right after the case was filed against them for their crimes against humanity. They used to change their hideouts regularly and avoided public gatherings to evade the law enforcers.

The operation teams of RAB-2 arrested Nakib from Dakkhinkhan and Mokhlesur from Ashulia.