Trial Of Mueen, Ashraf
Dr Alim’s daughter wants highest punishment
Fugitive Al-Badr bosses Ashrafuzzaman Khan and Chowdhury Mueenuddin abducted and killed Dr Abdul Alim Chowdhury towards the end of the Liberation War, his daughter Farjana Chowdhury Nipa testified on Sunday. She testified as the ninth prosecution witness against the two prime accused in the elimination of Bangali intellectuals in 1971. Nipa, 45 lives in the USA.
She told the International Crimes Tribunal-2 that she was three-year-old when she lost her father.
She said that she came to know about her father’s abduction and killing from her mother, paternal uncles and assistants of her father who witnessed the abduction.
Nipa said that she also came to about the incident of her father’s abduction from different books, documents and newspapers.
Nipa, is an eye specialist like her father the martyred intellectual Dr Alim Chowdhury.
She is a researcher in ophthalmology in USA.
Nipa said that Al-Badr men had abducted her father from his Purana Paltan flat on December 15, 1971 afternoon and his body was found on December 18, 1971 at Rayerbazar killing filed in Dhaka.
Nipa said that her father was an eye specialist and ran a secret hospital with support from other physicians including Dr Fazle Rabbi to treat injured freedom fighters during the Liberation War.
She said that she and her two-year-old sister lived the parents at the rented the first floor flat at Purana Paltan during the war.
On December 15, 1971 her mother saw a mud-stained microbus halted with a big sound at the gate of the same building where Moulana Mannan, an organizer of Al-Badr, lived.
She said, within half an hour of the arrival of the microbus, the Al-Badr men started kicking the exclave entrance to their flat which was locked from inside and her father’s assistants opened the door.
Right then, she said, her father went downstairs to seek help from Maulana Mannan who did not let Dr Alim enter his flat.
Instead, Maulana Mannan aske Dr Alim to go with the raiders, said Nipa.
She said that the raiders blindfolded his father and took him away.
Nipa said that at this point her mother appealed to Mannan to let her know about her husband’s whereabouts.
Mannan advised her mother not to worry and told her that Al-Badr men had taken her husband away for treatment of wounded freedom fighters, she said.
She said that his father’s body was found on December 18, 1971 at Rayerbazar killing field and that he was killed by charging bayonet in his face, chest and other parts of his body.
‘As my father’s body was brought to our house, my sister said “how much blood was there in my father’s chest,’ she broke into tears.
She demanded highest punishment of the Al-Badr bosses who abducted and killed intellectuals, including her father.
She also demanded punishment of Jamaat for organizing the Al-Badr Bahini in 1971.
Later state defence counsels, Md Abdus Shukur Khan and Salma Hai Tuni, cross-examined her.
Later, the tribunal adjourned the proceedings until today.
Later, war crimes accused Abdul Alim’s the defence lawyer Ahsanul Huq Hena cross-examined the investigation officer ZM Altafur Rahman, the last and 35th prosecution witness against Alim, for the third day.
His cross-examination resumes today.
The tribunal also fixed today for giving its decision on the bail prayer of war crimes accused Syed Md Qaisar, a former Jatiya Party state minister and the alleged ring leader of Qaisar Bahini in 1971.
Qaisar filed the bail petition on July 22 on grounds of poor health.
-With New Age input
