In the afternoon of September 9, 1971, the residents of Hindu-majority Paul Para in Shemulhati village in Kishoreganj saw two boats heading towards their area, cutting through the waters of a nearby lake.
There were some 15-20 gun-weilding men in khakis in the boats. One of them was wearing a white cap.
Soon the two boats moored near the homesteads of two Hindu families – one near the house of Mothura Bhowmik Das and the other near the house of Nitish, a doctor.
The man in the white cap, Syed Md Hachhan alias Syed Md Hasan alias Hachhen Ali, a local razakar leader, was shouting to the top of his voice: “Catch the malauns [a slang for Hindus] and finish them.”
The razakar men in khakis, led by Hasan, raided one Hindu house after another and took Okroor Chandra Paul, Sharat Chandra Paul and 10 others hostage. They killed Okroor and Sharat with gunshots near the house of Jagadish Paul.
The other 10, all bound with ropes, were lined up before a firing squad near the Mir Bari. One of them, Surendra Chandra Paul, managed to flee the scene and hide himself in a nearby jute field but the razakars chased him down and killed with gunshots. The other nine, standing in a line, were also killed in the same fashion.
Then the razakars, led by Hasan, ransacked and torched many Hindu houses in Paul Para. After they left around 3:30pm, the locals floated all the dead bodies in a lake at Bherontola in the west of the village. By night, most of the villagers left for India to save their lives.
Nearly 44 years after the mass killing, a special tribunal dealing with war criminals handed down capital punishment to Syed Hasan Ali, now on the run, for committing war crimes during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
The tribunal said that the razakar from Kishoreganj could be hanged or gunned down, an order that is unique to this verdict. The International Crimes Tribunal 1 found him guilty of five of the six charges brought against him.
He was given death sentence for two genocides – one for killing those 12 Hindus in Shemulhati and the other for the murder of eight people in Borgaon village on September 27.
He was given jail until death for killing one Tofazzal Hossain and two hindus in Araiura and Chikni villages in the same district and acquitted of the charges of plundering and torching houses.
The tribunal, led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, read out the summary of the 125-page verdict against the absconding war criminal. It also ordered police to arrest him or take Interpol’s help for capturing Hasan, who was known as the “razakar daroga” during the war.
“It is well proved that the accused had direct complicity and substantially contributed and facilitated in the commission of such barbarous types of crimes and as such no punishment other than death will be equal to the said horrendous crimes for which the accused has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in the above mentioned two charges,” the tribunal said in its judgement.
“... it may be presumed that had the accused not been involved in the crime he would have certainly appeared before the Tribunal to face the trail,” the tribunal said.
The 68-year-old war criminal, who went into hiding after investigation began, can appeal to the Supreme Court against the verdict within 30 days if he is arrested or surrenders, the court said.
After the verdict, his lawyer told journalists that Hasan Ali should appeal to the Supreme Court against his sentence. “He did not live in Kishoreganj during the war. The tribunal punished him for his fathers’ crimes,” the state appointed defence lawyer said.
On the other hand, prosecutor Mohammad Ali told reporters that they were happy with the verdict.
Hasain, son of a local collaborator, is the fifth person to be convicted of war crimes in absentia since the trials started in 2010.
The Balongka street genocide
Around 8pm on September 27 ,1971, around 15 people, all Hindus, came to the Markan Beel in Tarail of Kishoreganj, looking to go to India to escape religious persecution.
But Hasan Ali and his subordinate razakars abducted and took them to the Balongka Street and killed eight men with gunshots.
They also snatched ornaments and cash from the women hostages and confined them and their children at the Tarail police station.
Hasan followed his father’s footsteps
Hasan’s father Syed Musleh Uddin was a madrasa teacher who became Nejami Islami’s general secretary during its formation in 1952. He was also the vice-chairman of East Pakistan Democratic Party during the Liberation War.
According to the prosecution’s investigation, Mosleh Uddin came out strongly in support of a united, non-secular Pakistan and many of his comments were published in newspapers at the time.
He became the chairman of Kishoreganj upazila unit of the infamous Peace Committee.
Hasan, born on August 18, 1947, in Brahmanbarhia, was inspired seeing his father joining the razakar para-militia, case documents say.
Razakar, like al-Badr and Peace Committee, was formed to assist the Pakistan occupation army to thwart the struggle for freedom.
Hasan provided all kinds of assistance to the Pakistan army when they set up a camp at Tarail and later became the commander of the local razakars.
Prosecution investigation has found that Hasan, along with fellow razakars, committed crimes against humanity. He was directly involved in the torching and looting of the houses of Hindus and Awami League supporters.
Although he had not been active in politics since independence, Hasan was once involved with Nezam-e-Islami, another anti-liberation organisation, according to the prosecution.