It was a tense morning of mid November in 1971. Equipped with heavy arms, a gang of notorious razakars stormed a small Birampur Bazar under Netrokona sadar to capture the pro-liberation people.
They searched the shops and found freedom fighter Badiuzzaman Mukta in a cloth store owned by one Siddiqur Rahman where he had been hiding. The due were abducted.
The razakars also caught Abdul Malek alias Shanto, Ram Chandra Talukder alias Lebu, Islam Uddin, bank employee Mizanur Rahman and adolescent boy Ismail Hossain, and abducted them.
On the way back to their torture cell set up at the district rest house, the razakars shot dead Lebu and threw his dead body in the river at Lakshmiganj Kheyaghat. The other detainees were tortured until noon. Later the razakars roamed the town with the injured in an open jeep to terrify the pro-liberation people.
In the evening, the injured persons were taken to an army camp at the Vocational Training Institute. In the night, they were taken to Moktarpara Bridge, and all of them, except for bank employee Mizanur, were killed by rifle shots.
Of the victims, only the bodies of Mukta and Siddiq were found later.
Obaidul Haque Taher was the commander of this razakar force while Ataur Rahman Noni was one of his accomplices. The duo were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal yesterday for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
Four out of the six charges pressed against them were proved beyond doubt. The International Crimes Tribunal 1, led by Justice Anwarul Haque, sentenced them to death on two charges including the said incident. The duo were given life-term imprisonment on the two other proved charges.
The court said that the government can execute them by hanging by the neck or by a firing squad.
The duo were also given capital punishment for the abduction and murder of seven people from Laufa village at Barhatta and rape of two women on October 19, 1971.
They were given jailed for life on charge number one – abduction and murder of Awami league leader Fazlur Rahman at Baushi Bazar at Barhatta, loot and arson on August 17; and charge two – abduction and murder of footballer Dabir Hossain at Barhatta on October 4.
Taher, now 66, was a leader of Nezam-e-Islam party that opposed the birth of Bangladesh. But at the time of his arrest, he was associated with the BNP. Noni, 62, became a footballer of the town after the independence. He used to run his own business in Netrokona town before the arrest. Netrokona police arrested the duo on August 12, 2014.
The tribunal started reading out the 268-page verdict at 10:34am after the duo were produced before it from the Dhaka Central Jail. A huge contingent of law enforcers were deployed outside the court.
Defence counsel GH Tamim said that they would challenge the verdict and hoped that the convicts would be acquitted by the Appellate Division. On the other hand, prosecutor Mukhlesur Rahman Badal said they were happy with the verdict.
Local freedom fighters brought out a jubilant procession in the town following the verdict and distributed sweets among the people. Ali Reza Kanchan, plaintiff of the case and nephew of martyred Mukta, welcomed the judgement. He also demanded quick execution of the sentence and protection of the witnesses, reports our correspondent.
Kanchan filed the case on August 12, 2010 against Taher, Noni and 10 others, accusing them of carrying out atrocities four decades ago. On December 11, 2014, the court accepted the charges levelled against the duo. They were indicted on six charges on March 2 last year. A total of 23 witnesses testified at the tribunal against them.
According to the tribunal’s investigating agency, they found specific evidence regarding the involvement of Taher and Noni in war crimes. This is why the 10 other accused were not charged. The agency is now investigating four other cases in the district.