War crimes trial
Witness says Quader killed her husband in 1971
A prosecution witness on Monday testified that detained Jamaat assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Molla had killed her husband along with 50 to 60 people at Ghatarchar village of Keraniganj in Dhaka on November 25, 1971.
Nurjahan, the eighth prosecution witness against Quader, stated this in his deposition made before the International Crimes Tribunal-2, popularly known as the war crimes tribunal, constituted to try 1971 war criminals.
Quader was on the dock.
The witness, aged about 13 in 1971, said she was pregnant during the War of Independence and she and
her husband Nabi Hossain Bulu used to live in village Ghatarchar.
‘Hearing the sound of gun shots after Fazar prayer on November 25, 1971, we hid under a cot and the sound stopped after a sometime,’ she said.
Nurjahan said they came out to see what was happenings after the gun shots had stopped.
‘I saw army [Pakistani occupation army] coming towards our house from the nearby playground and my husband had gone to my uncle-in-law’s house,’ she said, adding that she had again heard gun shots and her auntie stormed into their house and cried out saying that Bulu was no more.
‘On hearing this, I cried out and rushed to my uncle-in-law’s house and saw that my uncle-in-law was bullet hit and my husband lying on the ground,’ the witness said.
She said that when she had tried to catch her husband, the Bengali man pointed his rifle at her and ordered her to leave the scene. ‘I had rushed into the house in fear.’
Nurjahan said that she had found her husband lying on the ground with blood on his face and chest after around 10:30am on the day. Some villagers took the body to their house.
She said that she had heard that 50 to 60 people were killed in village Ghatarchar on the day.
The witness told the tribunal that she had heard from her father-in-law, Luddu Mia, that Quader Molla of Jamaat had killed her husband.
While identifying Quader Molla on the dock, Nurjahan said that Quader had no beard at that time but only only small hair.
Her testimony over, Quader’s defence counsel Md Abdus Sobhan Tarafder began his cross examination which remained incomplete when the tribunal adjourned the proceedings of the case until August 26.
Prior to the deposition, the defence counsel concluded cross examination of Abdul Majid Palwan, the seventh prosecution witness against Quader.
Majid in his deposition before the tribunal on Wednesday, had testified that Quader Molla and his cohorts and Pakistani occupation army had killed 60 Bengali people and set houses on fire at Ghatarchar village of Keraniganj in Dhaka on November 25, 1971.
Facing the cross-examination on Monday, he told the tribunal that he had seen the incident hiding himself behind a tree near the village playground.
He denied a defence allegation that he had not seen Quader Molla on the spot or Quader Molla had not gone to the spot.
He also denied defence allegation that Quader Molla had no rifle in his hand or he (Quader) had not opened fire on the day.
In the beginning of the day’s proceedings, defence counsel Tajul Islam prayed for reasonable time to cross examine the new additional witness who was not on the original list.
The tribunal assured him that the defence will be given reasonable and adequate time for cross examining the witnesses.
On May 28, the tribunal led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir indicted Quader on six counts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The tribunal also posted the date of recording statement of the fifth prosecution witness against detained Jamaat assistant secretary general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman on August 28 as the prosecution failed to produce the witness on Monday, the day that the tribunal had earlier fixed for recording statement of the witness.
Courtesy of New Age
