The High Court on Monday made public its full verdict that declared the 1976 court-martial of Col Abu Taher “illegal and unconstitutional” and his execution a “cold-blooded assassination.”
The court also ordered formation of a high-powered probe committee to unveil the whole truth: “Ziaur Rahman had a direct role in killing Bangabandhu and 2,000-3,000 freedom fighters.” Retired judges, journalists, jurists must be on the committee, says the verdict.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh M Jakir Hossain gave the verdict on March 22, 2011 upon a petition challenging the legality of the camera trial and execution of Col Taher.
Taher’s wife Lutfa Taher, his brother Professor Anwar Hossain, now Jahangirnagar University vice-chancellor, and Fatema Yusuf, wife of Taher’s brother Yusuf Ali Khan, on August 22, 2010 filed the writ petition.
The next day, the HC issued a rule upon the government to explain why the Martial Law Regulations under which Col Taher was executed should not be declared “illegal and unconstitutional.”
“Taher’s so-called execution was actually a cold-blooded murder by none other than Ziaur Rahman,” the HC said in its verdict.
Col Taher, a sector commander of the Liberation War in 1971, was tried in secret inside Dhaka Central Jail on July 17, 1976 on a charge of high treason. He was executed on July 21. Sixteen other political leaders were also tried on the same charges and sentenced to various jail terms.
He was hanged at the climax of a topsy-turvy amid coups and counter-coups since August 15, 1975.
It comes as another legal measure for a reversal of Bangladesh’s post-August 15 political chronicles as the court verdict also made a flashback on the assassination of independence leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most members of his family.
Col Taher was a leader of the November 7 “sepoy-people” uprising that eventually saved Gen Ziaur Rahman from captivity and put into power while led Col Taher onto the gallows.
The court says Col Taher and his “comrades-in-arms” JSD leader Hasanul Huq Inu MP, Mahmudur Rahman Manna and Major Ziauddin – all of them – should be hailed as “patriot” instead of “traitor.”
And Col Taher must be accorded honour of a “martyr”. These people were not with Ziaur Rahman’s “autocratic” way rather they stood against his decisions, says the verdict, with regard to the November 3 and November 7 episodes in 1975.
Before coming to the crucial conclusions, the court had examined submissions by the state side, a judge of the trial court, plaintiffs and witnesses who include a foreign journalist who was a watcher on the tumultuous developments in the country’s political scenario at the time.
Journalist Lawrence Lifschultz of the United States, who had covered the episodes in Dhaka as the correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review, testified in writing from his diary and extempore before the court.
He implicated Gen Zia, who later became president of Bangladesh, on both counts: August 15, 1975 carnage and 1976 military trial and execution of Col Taher.
And the HC verdict from the two-judge bench resonates with the observations made in the submission by Lifschultz. “Colonel Taher’s killing was a tragic episode in our history and human rights violation in South Asia.”
About the military trial process, the court in the verdict observed: “It was a melodrama, it was a fiction.”
The court ruled that none other than Ziaur Rahman was involved in the “so-called” trial and execution.
Gen Zia, the ex-army chief-turned-president and founder of BNP, in his turn, was assassinated on May 30, 1981.
On this score, the court said, “It is unfortunate that Ziaur Rahman is no more alive to face a murder case, but as the magistrate of the tribunal, Abdul Ali, the abetter in the killing, is still alive. The court orders the authority concerned to file a murder case against him.
“A criminal case procedure does not consider whether the offence done at the direction of higher authority or on necessity. In this consideration only the punishment can be scaled down,” judges said in the verdict about the magistrate of the trial court.
The court went on denouncing Zia’s role: “Ziaur Rahman wanted to erase the memories of liberation. He introduced religion-based politics replacing secularism. He established a children’s park on the place where the Pakistani army surrendered after fall in the liberation war. He rehabilitated the killers of Bangabandhu and put them in powerful positions. Media, in his regime, were not allowed to use words like razakar and Pakistani occupation force.”