Police today arrested four war crimes accused of Netrokona, hours after the International Crimes International-1 issued arrest warrant against them for their alleged involvement in committing crimes during the Liberation War in 1971.

The arrestees are: Azizur Rahman, 65, Ashak Ali, 82, Md Shahnewaz, 88, and Ramjan Ali, 78, of Durgapur upazila of Netrokona, police said.

Humayun Kabir, officer in charge of Durgapur Police Station, told The Daily Star that police arrested Azizur, Ashak Ali and Shahnewaz from their house in upazila around 1:00pm.

The arrestees will be produced before the tribunal tomorrow, he said.

Meanwhile, detectives arrested Ramjan Ali from Kawriapara Launchghat area in Narsingdi town around 3:30pm, our district correspondent reports quoting Delwar Hossain, inspector of Narsingdi DB.

Another accused Khalilur Rahman, 72, who is also a brother of Azizur Rahman, is yet to be arrested.

Earlier in the day, Prosecutor Rana Dasgupta moved a petition seeking arrest warrant for the five saying that the investigation officer of the case has already found evidence over their involvement in genocide and crimes against humanity committed in 1971.

He said the accused are locally influential persons and they are intimidating the witnesses of the case. Besides, they need to be interrogated for proper investigation, said Rana Dasgupta adding that the accused may flee the country as they are living bordering area.

Rana Dasgupta said the accused were involved with the politics of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971 and as the war broke out, they joined Razakar and Al-Badr Bahini, two auxiliary forces of Pakistani army to committed the crimes.

Badrul Alam, the investigation officer of the case, said the probe in the case started on April 30 last year and he has found "preliminary evidence" over their involvement in crimes.