Relatives of the martyred journalists who had been killed by the active participation of fugitive al-Badr leaders Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan said they were targeted, as their pens were mightier than the ruler’s sword and in favour of the birth of the nation.
They made the observation while submitting depositions at the war crimes tribunal seeking justice for their mothers, fathers, husbands or brothers. Most of them could not identify their loved one’s bodies since they was decomposed or stabbed indiscriminately with bayonets.
Sumon Zahid was eight years old when his mother Selina Parvin had been abducted on December 13, 1971. He was old enough to understand the incident and can remember it. As the third witness against Mueen-Ashraf, he told the tribunal that he and his uncle Uzir eye witnessed the abduction of his mother by Mueen and his associates. Later, his uncle recognised Mueen from newspapers.
Selina Parvin became the target of al-Badr as she had been a pro-liberation writer and regularly wrote for her weekly Shilalipi along with other papers including the daily Ittefaq, the daily Purba Pakistani, the daily Purbadesh, weekly Lalana, Begum and Nurjahan Begum.
“My mother was not a famous journalist but she was killed by al-Badr since pro-liberation writers such as Munier Chowdhury, journalist Shahidullah Kaiser, Zahir Raihan and ANM Golam Mostafa used to write in her weekly,” Suman said.
On December 17, 1971, Selina’s body was found at the Rayerbazar mass killing grounds blindfolded with bayonet wounds.
Towhid Reza Noor’s family was not as lucky as Sumon to identify the body of his father, journalist Siraj Uddin Hossain. Towhid in his deposition as the sixth prosecution witness said his family could not recognise the body from Rayerbazar as most of the bodies had been decomposed. His family went to the Rayerbazar field on December 18 searching for Siraj Uddin after hearing from people that the field had been used to kill intellectuals abducted from different places of the capital.
Towhid was three when his father had been abducted on December 11. He heard about the incident from his mother Nurjahan Siraji and elder brother Shahin Reza Noor. Both witnessed the abduction.
ANM Golam Rahman Dulu, brother of martyred journalist ANM Golam Mostafa, said he had witnessed how a junior al-Badr member was showing respect to Mueen Uddin as a senior leader at a camp. Golam Mostafa had been picked up by the al-Badr militia on December 11.
Dulu also said Mueen had taken him to the Purana Paltan office of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat and the Physical Training Centre at Mohammadpur which was historically known as an al-Badr torture camp when he was desperately searching for his brother.
“I saw the militia stand in attention after seeing Mueen. He entered the Physical Training Centre very arrogantly,” Dulu said told the tribunal.
Son of martyred journalist Anirban Mostafa never had a chance to say “father” as he was only nine months old then. Anirban also told the tribunal that later, when he had asked his father’s colleagues and came to know that few days before the abduction, Mueen and Golam Mostafa were engaged in an altercation. At one point, Mueen had threatened him saying “remarks against Pakistan will not bring any good to you.”
Mueen and Golam Mostafa were colleagues at the daily Purbadesh in 1971. Golam Mostafa’s body was never found.
According to Panna Kaiser, wife of martyred journalist and novelist Shahidullah Kaiser, one of the abductors Khalek Majumder had mentioned Mueen and Ashraf’s name as his superiors when he was caught by freedom fighters in December 1971.
Khalek again mentioned the duo’s name when he faced trial under the Collaborators Act in 1972, Panna Kaiser told the tribunal. She had lived with Shahidullah Kaiser only two years and 10 months as his wife.
Mueen and Ashraf, who are now believed to live in London and New York respectively, were charged for the killing of 18 intellectuals, six of who were journalists.