The International Crimes Tribunal yesterday issued arrest warrants for deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and four others over the "mass killings" during a Hefajat-e Islam protest at Motijheel's Shapla Chattar on May 5, 2013.

The four are former home minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, ex-inspector general of police Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, then Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Benazir Ahmed, who later became IGP, and Imran H Sarker, spokesperson for Gonojagoron Mancha, which sought death penalty for war crimes. 

The tribunal also asked the authorities concerned to produce four arrestees before the court on May 12 in connection with the Shapla Chattar incident after the prosecution filed a petition seeking arrest warrants and production warrant for them.

They are former state minister for home Shamsul Haque Tuku, former IGP AKM Shahidul Haque, ex-director general of National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) Ziaul Ahsan and deputy inspector general of police Molla Nazrul Islam. They are in jail in different cases.

During the court proceedings, Justice Md Shofiul Alam Mahmood asked the prosecution how Imran H Sarker was involved in the Shapla Chattar killings.

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ICT Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam then told the tribunal that Imran, along with high officials of the then government, was involved in the plan on the crackdown at the Shapla Chattar.

"The investigation agency has found information that the Gonojagoron Mancha had created the ground for the mass killings at Shapla Chattar and it took part with the police in the killings of Hefajat-e Islam activists," he added.

On May 5, 2013, members of Hefajat, a Qawmi madrasa-based organisation, mobilised thousands of supporters from across the country at Shapla Chattar to press home their 13-point demand, which included stricter blasphemy laws stipulating that atheists be hanged.

As the protest turned violent, police, Rab, and BGB members launched a late-night operation on May 5–6 and dispersed the demonstrators. Although Hefajat claimed that 2,000 of its leaders and activists were killed in the incident, the government put the death toll at 13, including three police personnel.

Yesterday, the tribunal also sent police constable Sohel Mia to jail in connection with the death of Shaikh Ashabul Yamin, a student in Savar on July 18 last year.