Dhaka, Feb. 8 -- Former Bangladesh Army chief Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan has described the indemnity granted to security forces involved in the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami government's Operation Clean Heart as a "licence to kill", arguing that it normalised enforced disappearances, custodial deaths, and impunity within the military and intelligence agencies.

He made the remarks on Sunday during a testimony at the International Crimes Tribunal-1 in a crimes against humanity case over enforced disappearances and killings allegedly carried out by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI).

The two-member tribunal, led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder with Justice Md Shofiul Alam Mahmood as the other member, began recording testimony in the...