Two former senior Rab officials were shown arrested yesterday in two cases of enforced disappearance filed with the International Crimes Tribunal.

The two -- former police superintendent Mohiuddin Farooqi and ex-additional police superintendent Md Alep Uddin -- were earlier arrested in other cases filed over the July uprising.

Farooqi had worked for Rab-10 and Rab-2, while Alep Uddin had served Rab-11.

Farooqi is facing trial in the case filed by a person who was forcibly disappeared, tortured, and jailed in a Digital Security Act (DSA) case for four and a half months.

Alep is being prosecuted in another case of enforced disappearance. The plaintiff of the case was jailed for seven years on charges of committing terrorism.

The three-member ICT bench, led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumdar, yesterday sent the two accused to jail after hearing the cases. It also fixed February 20 for further hearing and asked the prosecution to submit progress reports on the investigations that day.

During the hearing yesterday, the prosecution described Alep Uddin as the "mastermind" behind the forced disappearances.

"Alep Uddin has been named in most of the 50 complaints filed so far with the ICT  regarding forced disappearance," a prosecution lawyer told the tribunal.

The complainant who was charged under DSA by Farooqi was picked up on October 27, 2018. According to the plaintiff, five-six plainclothes men caught him when he was aboard a vessel at the capital's Sadarghat Launch Terminal on his way to his village home in Pirojpur.

They handcuffed and blindfolded him and took him to an unknown place where he was brutally tortured. He was repeatedly questioned about his social media activities and posts criticising former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, reads the complaint.

He was also told that an order was issued to kill him. At one stage, his blindfold came off and he identified one of those beating him as one of his abductors.

One day, his blindfold was taken off and he was allowed to shower. He found that his clothes were blood-drenched and his face battered.

According to the complaint, he was put into a car on November 6, 2018, given two mobile phones and some money before being dropped off at a place. At that time, some vehicles inscribed with the word "Rab-10" reached there and he was picked up again.

After taking him to the ticket counter of Shyamoli Paribahan, the law enforcers handcuffed him, essentially staging an arrest. He was taken to the Rab-10 office where Farooqi met him.

"Forget the past. You have been arrested today. We have orders to kill you in a crossfire. I am going to the Rab-2 office and I will take you there and kill you in a crossfire," the complainant quoted Farooqi as saying.

He was then sued under the DSA.

The complainant who filed the case against Alep Uddin was allegedly picked up from Madhuban Hotel near the capital's Rampura Bazar on April 7, 2017, by some plainclothes men who claimed they were cops.

He was taken to a Rab-11 "detention centre" in Narayanganj's Shiddhirganj, where he was hung upside down and tortured. After three months, he was moved to the Rab headquarters, where he was kept inside a tiny cell for another month, reads the complaint.

He was approached by Alep and another person to take Tk 30 lakh to keep mum about his abduction. As he refused to comply, he was sent back to jail.

During the hearing yesterday, Farooqi tried to talk to the tribunal, but it told him that he would be allowed to talk through his lawyer.