War Crimes Trial
Quader Molla, cohorts killed 60 at Keraniganj: witness
A prosecution witness on Wednesday testified that detained Jamaat assistant secretary general Abdul 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. Abdul Majid Palwan, the seventh 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.
Majid, now 55, was not on the original list of the prosecution witnesses and the tribunal on August 6 allowed the prosecution to produce him and two others before the
tribunal as additional witnesses.
Majid said his village, consisting five localities, was inhabited by both Hindus and Muslims in 1971 and all but a few of the villagers used to support Awami League.
Majid said he woke up hearing gunshots in his village on early November 25, 1971, saw flames around the village and identified that the sound of fire shots had been
coming from the northern side of the village.
The witness said that he had walked towards northern side of the village and stopped near Ghatarchar School ground.
‘I hid myself behind a tree and saw the Pakistani occupation army killing people,’ Majid said.
He said Quader Molla and some people wearing Pajama-Panjabee were there with the occupation army.
‘The Pakistani occupation army killed people and Quader had also fired with his rifle,’ the witness said.
The killing and massacre had continued from early morning to around 11:00am, he said, adding that the army and Quader’s gang then left the village.
He said that a total of 60 Hindus and Muslims were killed in the massacre.
Majid said that at the night before November 25, 1971 Quader had a meeting at the house of his (Majid’s) neighbour Jaynal.
When the Pakistani army left the village, Majid came to know that the short-figured man wearing Pajama-Panjabee with the army was Quader Molla.
His testimony over, Quader’s defence counsel Md Abdus Sobhan Tarafder began his cross examination which remained incomplete when the tribunal adjourned the proceedings
until Sunday.
On May 28, the tribunal led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir indicted Quader on six counts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Prior to the deposition, the chief defence counsel Abdur Razzaq submitted to the tribunal that the prosecution side had been bringing new witnesses (witnesses out of
the main list) one after another in Quader Molla’s case and had been abusing the process of the court.
He submitted that the prosecution side had produced six witnesses, including only three witnesses, out of 40 on the main list submitted on December 28, 2011, two, out
of three on the additional list submitted on April 10 and one, out of three on the additional list submitted on May 2 and finally submitted a list of three additional
witnesses on August 6.
He prayed for at least three weeks time for cross examination of the witnesses from the new additional list.
The tribunal assured him that the defence will be given adequate time for cross examining the witnesses.
Courtesy of New Age
