RAWALPINDI: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, President of the defunct Awami League, will be tried by a Special Military Court for “waging war against Pakistan” and other offences, a Press Note issued by the Headquarters of the Chief Martial Law Administrator said today [Aug 9]. The trial will commence on August 11 in camera and its proceedings will be secret, the Press Note said. The accused will be given proper opportunity to prepare his defence and will be provided with all the facilities permitted in law including engaging a counsel of his own choice provided such a counsel is a citizen of Pakistan, it added.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested from his Dhanmandi residence in the early hours of the morning of March 26 after the Pakistan Army moved in to restore the authority of the Government. Later, he was brought to West Pakistan where he is under detention. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Rawalpindi,] Twenty persons were killed and several wounded as a result of unprovoked shelling by the Indians in the border area of East Pakistan between July 29 and August 6, it was officially stated here today [Aug 9]. … A number of village homes were razed … by the indiscriminate firing which also claimed the life of an innocent girl in … Kushtia district.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2021