Writer and journalist Shahriyar Kabir, the first prosecution witness against Jamaat’s detained secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, on Thursday told the International Crimes Tribunal-2 that Al-Badr was a half-secret organization during the War of Independence in 1971.
‘No name of any Al-Badr bigwig was published in 1971 as it was a half-secret bahini,’ said Shahriyar, a freedom-fighter and war crimes researcher, while undergoing cross-examination by Mojaheed’s defence counsel Mizanul Islam for the seventh day.
He said that the news with the photograph of Mojaheed addressing a road meeting as Al-Badr chief was published in newspapers in 1971 and, after the independence of the country, a large number of reports were published in newspapers in 1972 on how Al-Badr was formed and who were in its high command.
He said that the Dainik Pakistan’s report in its 8 November, 1971 issue, which was submitted to the tribunal, did not have the words ‘Al-Badr’ and ‘Rally of Al-Badr’.
The witness said that over 40 cases were lodged in independent Bangladesh in connection with the killing of intellectuals and in his book — Ekattorer Ghatok Dalalera Ke Kothay — he observed that most of the cases were cooked up after talking to the relatives of the slain intellectuals.
He said that many anti-liberation officials and employees of the administration might have been involved in cooking up the cases.
Shahriyar said that in the first preface of his book which was written on 10 February, 1987, he had said the governments that came to power after independence did not want to uphold the spirit of the liberation war, they rather tried to eliminate the spirit from the memory of the nation quickly.
The preface also said that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman pardoned the killers instead of trying them.
As the day’s cross-examination of Shahriyar remained incomplete, he told the tribunal that he, in the beginning of his deposition on August 26, requested the counsels to complete questioning him as early as possible but, most probably, he was cross-examined for a much longer time than other witnesses.
‘I had also told the tribunal that the long grilling seemed to be torture. I will have to go to India on Tuesday and then Pakistan and other countries,’ he told the tribunal.
‘He has been cross-examined for 18 hours till today (Thursday),’ mentioned prosecutor Rana Dasgupta.
The tribunal then asked defence counsel Mizanul Islam how much time he would need to complete his cross-examination.
‘At least one more session,’ Mizanul replied.
The tribunal then adjourned the day’s proceedings and asked the prosecutor to produce the next witness on September 20.
The tribunal also asked the defence counsel to complete Shahriyar’s cross-examination at a time suitable for him.
Courtesy of New Age
