A new prosecution witness in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Kashem Ali alias Bangla Khan yesterday said the accused and his cohorts had tortured pro-liberation people at Daleem Hotel in Chittagong City to collect information about freedom fighters.
Md Sanaullah Chowdhury, 67, the second witness, told the International Crimes Tribunal 2 that he had been freed after a week of confinement as he signed a bond mentioning that he would inform Kashem about the freedom fighters of the area.
The accused was sitting in the dock.
Following Sanaullah’s testimony, defence counsel Mizanul Islam cross examined him. The questioning remained incomplete and the tribunal set January 23 for rest of the cross-examination.
Mir Kashem is facing 14 charges of crimes against humanity he had committed in Chittagong during the 1971 Liberation War. The trial began on November 18 last year with the prosecution’s placing opening statement.
Earlier in the day, the defence ended grilling the first witness, Syed Mohammad Eamran of Chandgaon Chittagong. He testified at the tribunal on December 11, 2013. Later the tribunal had to defer the trial proceedings twice.
After the cross-examination of the first witness, the prosecution produced Sanaullah who had been an office assistant at the deputy commissioner’s office during 1971. He lived at a rented house near Muslim High School in the city.
The witness said some of his friends and neighbours used to go to his house to listen to programmes on the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra and the BBC. After the evening prayers on November 27, Sanaullah was at home with his brother-in-law Habibur Rahman, neighbour Jafar and Ilias.
“Some eight people came and took us on a jeep blindfolded. We were taken to Daleem Hotel and kept on the first floor of the building.”
Sanaullah said there he had seen lawyer Shamsul Islam and Shah Alam from North Nalapara, and Toontu Sen and Ranjeet Das from Hajari Lane. At that time, Kashem and his accomplices had grilled all of them to know information about the freedom fighters of their areas.
The next day, the witness said, they had seen some al-Badr members coming to the room with an adolescent boy – a freedom fighter from Swandip who was tortured severely. “We heard someone commanding the al-Badr members to throw the boy [outside] before the eyes of others so that we could imagine about our future.”
Sanaullah said he had seen the killings of at least five persons at the Daleem Hotel including Jasim, Toontu and Ranjeet.
After his deposition, the defence asked him one question, whether he had seen Mir Kashem after the independence. The witness answered in the negative.