Survivors of Dalim Hotel, used by Mir Quasem Ali as a torture cell during 1971 Liberation War, yesterday hailed the Supreme Court verdict of upholding death sentence for the war criminal, saying it cleansed Chittagong of a stigma.
During the war, the local al-Badr forces grabbed the Mohamaya Bhaban from a Hindu family in the city’s Andarkilla, renamed it Dalim Hotel and set up a torture cell.
Describing Dalim Hotel as a death factory, the International Crimes Tribunal said pro-liberation people were tortured and killed there under the leadership of the notorious Mir Quasem.
Syed Md Emran, a prosecution witness and a group commander of Liberation Force freedom fighters, narrated how he endured 16 days of torture at Dalim Hotel.
“I was a first-year graduate student when I joined the Liberation War. In the early hours of November 30, Mir Quasem and his men besieged my house and detained me along with my elder brother. Ten to twelve more freedom fighters were picked up from different parts of the city.
“We were taken to Dalim Hotel where we were tortured brutally. During confinement, I was mostly kept blindfolded and my arms and legs were tied. I was hit with sticks and electric wire for information about freedom fighters. Quasem, who controlled the torture camp, interrogated me himself,” said Emran, who along with some 150 other detainees were rescued by freedom fighters from the torture cell.
Another survivor, freedom fighter Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, said: “I was caught from Andarkilla area on November 30 and was taken to Dalim Hotel. The captives in the makeshift torture cell were tortured brutally for information about the whereabouts of freedom fighters.
“We were given electric shocks, hung upside down and beaten with iron rods. They also pressed burning cigarette butts against our bodies to extract information.”
Jahangir Chowdhury, who was the deputy chief of Joy Bangla Bahini, said: “Mir Quasem’s son tried to convince me so that I do not testify against the war criminal. However, I told him that I will testify against Quasem despite all odds. Now I am over the moon with the verdict.
“I was held captive and tortured for 26 days. Cruel forms of tortures were inflicted on us. We were kept in crammed rooms and there was no toilet for us. If the captives asked for drinking water, they were given urine instead.”
Another survivor, Chittagong Independent University’s acting vice-chancellor Prof Dr Irshad Kamal Khan said: “The captives were blindfolded and their arms and legs were tied. We were served meal once a day. I cannot say for sure how many days I was held captive in the camp. We used to hear groans and screams coming from different rooms of the torture cell at different times of the day.”
Apart from Dalim Hotel, the port city had other makeshift torture cells in Nandan Kanon’s Islamia Hotel, Panchlaish’s Salma Manjil, Chamrar Gudam’s Dost Mohammad Building, and Dewanhat’s Dewan Hotel, according to Liberation War researcher Dr Mahfizur Rahman.
“I have interviewed the victims tortured at Dalim Hotel. They said when Mir Quasem came to the camp, the al-Badr members who guarded the cell would address Quasem as their commander,” Mahfizur said.
Researcher Ahsanul Kabir Riton said the notorious war criminal had established a reign of terror in Chittagong by committing crimes such as killing, looting, abduction, persecution, genocide, rape, extortion and arson attacks in collaboration with the Pakistani occupation forces.
According to the prosecution documents, Quasem was the general secretary of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.
‘Make Dalim Hotel a memorial’
Activists of Gonojagoron Moncho yesterday demanded that Dalim Hotel be acquired for preservation as a Liberation War memorial. They made the demand at a rally in the port city yesterday to welcome the Supreme Court verdict.
“We demand the hotel be preserved as a symbol of torture. The government should acquire the hotel and preserve it as a memorial without delay,” said Sharif Chowhan, Chittagong coordinator of Gonojagoron Moncho.
Celebrations in Manikganj
In Manikganj, the native home of Mir Quasem, people rejoiced at the upholding of his death sentence, reports our correspondent in the district. A jubilation procession was brought out yesterday afternoon under the banner of Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee and Gonojagoron Moncho. It passed through the town’s streets before staging a rally in front of the Manikganj Press Club.
Freedom fighters in Harirampur, the upazila where the war criminal’s ancestral home is located, distributed sweets after news of the court decision reached there.