A former officer-in-charge of Sharan Khola police station told International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Sunday that a decomposed, unidentified body was recovered from the west bank of the Baleshwar River in Bagerhat on May 17, 2010. Retired additional superintendent of police Nizam Uddin Hawlader testified as the ninth witness in a crimes-against-humanity case against suspended Major General Ziaul Ahsan. He said the body had its head covered with cloth, hands and feet tied, and a cement sack attached to it.

Hawlader said he instructed SI Iqbal to take necessary action and prepare an inquest report. Because it was late, the body was brought to the police station and sent to the Sadar Hospital for autopsy the next morning. As it remained unidentified, it was buried through Anjuman Mufidul Islam in Bagerhat cemetery.

Relatives later identified the body from its shirt and trousers and said it was former BDR member Nazrul Islam. Nazrul’s wife Munni Akhter has also testified that DNA testing confirmed the body was her husband’s. She alleged they learned through intelligence sources that Ziaul Ahsan had forcibly disappeared and killed him.