The first defence witness for the detained nayeb-e-amir of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, on Sunday told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 that he
had not heard of any of Sayedee’s atrocities.
Shamsul Alam Talukdar, a 68-year-old freedom-fighter, made his deposition before the tribunal, popularly known as the war crimes tribunal instituted for the trial of the 1971 war crimes.
Identifying himself as the second-in-command of Major Ziauddin in the Sundarbans sub-sector, Shamsul said that he had come to make his deposition as a defence witness after being requested to do so by Sayedee’s third son, Masud Bin Sayedee.
Shamsul said that along with Major Ziauddin he went to Sayedee’s village in Parerhat in Pirojpur probably on 8 December, 1971 after the area was freed from the occupation army and Razakars.
Ziauddin dropped him at Parerhat for two or three hours, asking him to be in Pirojpur after gathering information about the latest situation in the area.
A good number of people, including local commanders of freedom-fighters, came there and described the atrocities of the Razakars, said Shamsul. ‘But none told me of Sayedee committing any atrocities.’
Shamsul told prosecutor Syed Haider Ali that the Razakars of the area went into hiding before his visit to Parerhat.
Shamsul, who was elected as the general secretary of Bagerhat PC College Central Students Union in 1963 and joined the National Awami Party of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani in 1969, said it was not true that he, along with his leader Mashiur Rahman Jadu Mia, was not in the mainstream of the War of Independence from the very beginning.
Shamsul, who had aspired to contest the provincial elections in 1970, also denied that he, along with Jadu Mia, had played a role in rehabilitating anti-liberation people and political parties after the assassination of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1975.
He admitted that he now has two wives.
He also admitted that one of his wives had prosecuted him under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
Sayedee was in the dock.
The tribunal of Justice Nizamul Huq, Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Anwarul Haque asked the defence counsel to submit the list of 15 defence witnesses by Wednesday. The defence had earlier submitted a list of five witnesses.
Courtesy of New Age
