First witness implicates five in uncle's killing
The first prosecution witness in a war crimes case against eight “Al-Badr men” implicated five of them in the planned abduction and killing of his maternal uncle in Jamalpur during the 1971 Liberation War, saying his grandfather had always blamed a sixth as well.
Journalist Azizur Rahman, 56, of Janakantha said Nurul Amin Mollik was killed for being an Awami League supporter and for secretly assisting freedom fighters and that the killers included Nurul's cousin Prof Sharif Ahammed.
Sharif, Ashraf Hossain, Abdul Mannan, Abdul Bari, Harun, Abul Hashem, Shamsul Haque and AKM Yusuf Ali face five charges of being involved in crimes against humanity in 1971.
Shamsul and Yusuf were identified by Azizur in the dock while the rest are absconding. A defence counsel started Azizur's cross-examination and proceedings were adjourned until today.
Azizur said the abduction planners were Ashraf, Sharif, Mannan and Bari.
He said the accused, with others, went to Nurul's house on C&B road in Jamalpur town on July 9 around 3:00am while Nurul was asleep with his son and daughter.
Nurul, sensing their presence, locked the door but opened it a few minutes later after they repeatedly struck the first floor door, he said.
Hearing the children's screams, Azizur's grandparents arrived and recognised Sharif. Azizur's grandfather Amin Uddin Mollik asked Sharif where Nurul was being taken and told them not to harm him, said Azizur.
“Nurul Amin Mollik is an Awami League supporter. We will take him to our camp for trial,” Azizur quoted Sharif as saying. At his and Ashraf's instructions, Bari and another accused, Abul Hashem, brought Nurul down tying his hands and feet, he said.
Nurul's body, bearing bullet and bayonet wounds, was found in the Brahmaputra river two days later, added Azizur.
He said a case he filed with Jamalpur's Cognizance Court in 1998 was transferred to Criminal Investigation Department before going traceless after BNP-Jamaat came to power in 2001.
Another case he filed with the same court in 2007 saw little progress. “I want punishment for the killing,” said Azizur.
He said residing in Jamalpur town, he was a student of class V of Singhojani Bohumukhi High School in 1971 and knew some of the accused to be former students who frequented the institution.
They included Sharif, Mannan, Hashem, Ashraf and Bari and one Harun Rashid Mokta, all of whom were involved in Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha's (ICS) politics, he said.
ICS members formed Al-Badr and one of the accused, Shamsul, was recognised as Badr Bhai, said Azizur.
He said local Jamaat leaders formed Peace Committee with offices at Ayurvedic Kutir of Moktob Kobiraj and Sadhana Oushodhaloy where people who supported the Liberation War were tortured.
The Pakistani occupation army entered Jamalpur town on April 22 through Modhupur of Tangail and settled in Jamalpur Wapda Rest House and Primary Teachers' Training Institute, he added.
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