Absconding Al-Badr bosses Md Ashrafuzzaman Khan alias Nayeb Ali and Chowdhury Mueenuddin were sentenced to death by an International Crimes Tribunal for abducting and killing intellectuals at the fag end of the country’s liberation war in 1971.
A three-member International Crimes Tribunal-2 on Sunday handed down the unanimous judgment against the duo – both central leaders of the erstwhile Islami Chhatra Sangha, student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami – in a crowded courtroom at Old High Court building amid tight security.
This is the ninth war crimes verdict the International Crimes Tribunal handed down in independent Bangladesh.
‘…the accused Ashrafuzzaman Khan alias Nayeb Ali Khan and Chowdhury Mueen Uddin be convicted and condemned to the single sentence of death for the crimes listed in all the charges and they be hanged by the neck till they are dead…,’ the presiding judge, Justice Obaidul Hassan pronounced the verdict at around 12:50pm.
Two other judges of the tribunal, Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Shahinur Islam, read out parts of the 41-page summary of the 154-page full judgement.
This was the ninth verdict in war crimes cases in the independent Bangladesh.
The tribunal found that Ashraf was the ‘chief executor’ and Mueen was the ‘operation-in-charge’ of Al-Badr, a ‘killing squad’ and ‘brainchild’ of Jamaat and the Pakistan occupation army during the liberation war.
Mueen is now living in London and Ashraf in the United States.
They were tried in absentia on 11 counts of crimes against humanity for abducting and killing 18 intellectuals, including nine Dhaka University teachers, six journalists and three physicians.
The judgement, the sixth in war crimes cases by the ICT-2, termed the martyred intellectuals as ‘the best sons and daughters of the soil’ and ‘pride of the nation’ and said that the killings were committed to cripple the Bengali nation.
The tribunal said that the fierceness of the event of the ‘intellectuals killing’ was extremely detrimental to basic humanness and it deserved to be evaluated as ‘crimes of serious gravity.’
It found that the intellectuals were abducted, taken blindfolded to the ‘Al-Badr headquarters’ set up at Mohammadpur Physical Training College before being butchered and thrown into mass graves.
A good number of intellectuals, family members of martyred intellectuals, lawyers, cultural activists and journalists crowded the courtroom to hear the verdict. They described the verdict a landmark event in the country’s glorious history of the liberation struggle.
Hearing the verdict, family members of the martyred intellectuals hugged each other in tears of joy in the courtroom. They demanded that the killers be immediately brought back to the country through the Interpol.
As the tribunal pronounced the death sentences, people, including Ganajagaran Mancha activists at Shahbagh Square burst out with joy welcoming the verdict.
Emerging from the tribunal after the verdict, prosecutor Md Shahidur Rahman, along with other prosecutors, expressed his satisfaction at the sentence and termed the verdict as the victory of the spirit of 1971 and ‘justice for the victim families after 42 years.’
Md Abdus Shukur Khan, the state defence counsel for Ashraf, however, expressed his ‘dissatisfaction’ with the judgment and said such a ‘result’ would not have come if Ashraf’s family had helped him with required information.
Salma Hai Tuni, the state defence counsel for Mueen, said she did not get the ‘expected judgement.’
‘I am sure, if my client surrenders and appeals to the Appellate Division against the sentence, he will be acquitted of all the charges brought against him,’ she said.
In his reaction, law minister Shafique Ahmed told reporters at the secretariat that the convicts would be brought back to the country through a legal process with cooperation of the ministries of foreign and home affairs.
He hoped that the judgement would be executed.
On September 30, after hearing both the sides, the judges kept the verdict reserved for pronouncement at a later date.
Indicted on June 24, the trial of the duo began on July 15. They were charged with instructing, directing, leading and accompanying armed Al-Badr men to kidnap the intellectuals at gun-point from their homes and killing them between December 11 and December 15, 1971.
‘The case in which we are going to render our verdict involves planned and barbaric killing of notable intellectuals to whom the nation pays reverence and humble tribute on 14 December each year,’ Justice Md Shahinur Islam began to read out the summary of the judgment at 11:03am.
As the ICT-2 courtroom has space constraints, it temporarily sat in the ICT-1 courtroom for delivering the verdict.
The tribunal awarded the capital punishment, prescribed in the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973, as the duo were found guilty beyond reasonable doubt on all counts of crimes against humanity – for abducting journalist Seraj Uddin Hossain from his Chamelibag residence in the early hours of December 11, 1971, and killing him, abducting Columbia Broadcasting Services reporter Syed Nazmul Haque on the afternoon of December 11, 1971 and killing him, abducting daily Purbadesh chief reporter ANM Golam Mostafa early December 11, 1971, and killing him, kidnapping BBC reporter Nazimuddin Ahmed around noon on Decemebr 12, 1971 and killing him, abducting daily Shilalipi editor Selina Parveen on December 13, 1971 and killing her, abducting Dhaka University teachers Gias Uddin Ahmed, Serajul Haque Khan, Md Mortuja, Abul Khayer, Foyzul Mohiuddin, Rashidul Hassan, Anwar Pasha and Santosh Bhattacharjee from their residences on the DU campus on the morning of December 13, 1971 and killing them, kidnapping DU teachers Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury and AM Munir Chowdhury on December 14, 1971 and killing them, abducting the then joint editor of daily Sangbad Shahidullah Kaiser on December 14 and killing him, abducting physicians Fazle Rabbi and Alim Chowdhury on December 15, 1971 and killing them.
The tribunal ordered that a copy of the judgment together with the conviction warrant be transmitted to the inspector general of police and another copy to the Dhaka district magistrate for information, necessary action and compliance.
Under the Act of 1973, the government formed ICT-1, investigation agency and a prosecution team on March 25, 2010 for trial of 1971 war crimes suspects. The ICT-2 was constituted on March 22, 2012 as the number of cases increased.
Mueen comes from Chanpur, a village under Daganbhuiyan in Feni destrict.
Ashraf comes from Chhotabhatara, a village under Maksudpur police station in Gopalganj district.
In 1971, Mueen, a student of Bangla department at Dhaka University, worked as a staff reporter for Bengali daily Purbadesh.
Ashraf took his BA (honours) in Islamic studies from DU in 1970.
At the trial stage, 25 prosecution witnesses testified against the duo. None, however, testified for Mueen and Ashraf, the ninth and 10th war crimes convicts, in the free soil of Bangladesh.
The tribunal, in the judgement, said that failure to prosecute the accused persons under the Collaborators Order 1972 did not hinder prosecution of the offenders under the act of 1973. ‘There was no scope to characterise the offences underlying in the Collaborators Order 1972 to be the “same offences” as specified in the Act of 1973.’
‘Al-Badr, which was known as the ‘action section’ of Jamaat- e-Islami and “death squad” of Pakistan army, had intrigued in taking evil steps to exterminate the intellectuals, as a part of a common design and plan,’ the judgement said.
The judgement said that Al-Badr was formed with the activists of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the student wing of Jamaat-e- Islami, and it provided support for the occupation army.
‘It is thus proved that the leading intellectuals, doctors, professors and scientists, and…eminent personalities, were brutally murdered. Al-Badr, the fascist body of Jamaat-e-Islami, committed such untold butchery,’ the judgement said.
‘We believe that the nation shall continue paying its humble tribute and reverence to the martyred intellectuals by reiterating the homage reflected in the above words also with a pledge to struggle against the recurrence of impious clout in the days to come,’ it said.
The judgement mentioned that Moulana Mannan, a Muslim League leader in 1971, who had collusion with Al-Badr in abducting intellectuals, was arrested just after independence and was handed over to police but was released for unknown reason.
‘Astonishingly, Moulana Mannan later became a member of military dictator HM Ershad’s cabinet. What a shame for the nation,’ the tribunal said.
The judgement, citing a report of Special Branch of Police in Feni district that Mueen had come to his native village during the rule of Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad in a vehicle of the Pakistan embassy in Bangladesh, said that it was a shame for the nation that the government had helped such a man to visit his native home.
The two ICTs, better known as war crimes tribunal, were set up to bring the 1971 war crimes suspects to justice.
Established on March 25, 2010, the ICT-1 delivered verdicts in three war crimes cases until now.
The designated war crimes investigators probed the war crimes charges against the two accused since September 25, 2011 and submitted the report to the prosecution on October 9, 2012.
On April 25 this year, the prosecution pressed 16 war crimes charges against the two.
On May 27, the tribunal decided to hold the trial in absentia and appointed two defence counsels for them.
Earlier, eight war crimes accused, six of them Jamaat leaders, were convicted by the two ICTs.
The ICT-2 handed down death sentences to absconding former Jamaat man Abul Kalam Azad, Jamaat leaders Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.
The Appellate Division handed death sentence to Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla by overturning his life term given by ICT-2.
The ICT-2 also sentenced BNP leader Abdul Alim to suffer imprisonment for the rest of his life.
The ICT-1 sentenced former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam to 90 years’ imprisonment, Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee to death and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury to death.
The trials of six other war crimes accused, Jamaat leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami, AKM Yusuf, Mir Quasem Ali and expelled Awami League leader Mobarak Hossain, are in progress.
The trial of absconding Nagarkanda mayor Zahid Hossain Khokon is due to begin on November 3.
Jamaat leaders Abdus Subhan and ATM Azharul Islam await indictment on war crimes charges.
The war crimes investigation agency has completed the probe against former Jatiya Party state minister Syed Md Qaisar and found his involvement in 1971 crimes against humanity.
-With New Age input
