A new prosecution witness in the trial of Syed Mohammad Qaisar yesterday said the Pakistani troops had shot and killed seven employees of a food warehouse at Shayestaganj in Habiganj following order of the accused.
Freedom fighter Goura Prasad Roy, the 12th witness in the case, said he had witnessed the incident which took place on May 29, 1971 hiding in a nearby sugarcane field.
The witness said Qaisar and he both owned rice mills and they were acquaintances.
Goura, 68, then a contractor of Shayestaganj Food Storehouse, told the International Crimes Tribunal 2 how he had saved himself and watched the killings at the local rail bridge. He was the president of Chhatra League in Habiganj at that time.
The witness said after March 7, the anti-liberation forces had formed the Peace Committee with Qaisar, Doroj Mia and Aziz Mia. They gave Qaisar the responsibility to form the razakar force. Right after formation of the Peace Committee, the accused formed his own force and named it “Qaisar Bahini.”
Goura said the seven employees of the food storage had been confined and asked not to leave the place without his permission. “On May 29, I saw Qaisar on the bridge. He made the men stand in a line and the Pakistani troops shot and killed them following his signal.”
He also said after witnessing the killings, he had been worried and went to Tripura, India for training as a freedom fighter. After his training, he fought in Koilashafar under Sector 4.
The witness also told the tribunal about how Qaisar and his cohorts had confined Dr Saleh Ahmed and Hirendranath Roy and handed them over to the Pakistani Army. He described the atrocities that Qaisar Bahini had committed with the support of the Pakistani occupation forces at Madhabpur marketplace.
After his deposition, junior defence counsel Sazzad A Chowdhury cross examined the witness and the tribunal adjourned the hearing until today.
The former Jatiya Party lawmaker was indicted on February 2 on 16 charges of crimes against humanity.