A new prosecution witness in the case against former Jatiya Party state minister Syed Mohammad Qaisar said yesterday that the accused and his cohorts had burnt their house and abducted her husband after torturing him in front of her eyes in Habiganj during the 1971 Liberation War.
Nisamon, 71, claimed that to get back her husband, she paid Qaisar Tk8,000, when the accused demanded Tk10,000. The witness, Golam Rouf Master’s wife, said she had known the accused since Qaisar’s uncle was her grandfather’s neighbour.
In her statement, Nisamon said the accused and members of the Qaisar Bahini had surrounded their house on eighth Ashar (third month of Bangla calendar) of 1971, seeking her brother-in-law Golam Noor.
“When my husband tried to flee, Qaisar chased and caught him and started to beat him brutally. Qaisar continuously asked him about Noor and my husband answered in the negative. When my father-in-law came to rescue my husband, they started to beat him too,” she stated.
She said: “My father-in-law died just 16 days after the torture.”
The accused and his men then burnt the house. “They took my husband, blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back. Following this, we went here and there to find him but failed. My father went to Qaisar to find out the whereabouts of my husband and the accused refused to do anything,” she said.
At the end of deposition, she claimed that the accused had demanded Tk10,000 to free her husband. Golam Rouf was freed after the family paid Qaisar Tk8,000.
Defence counsel SM Shahjahan cross examined her. At the end of the questioning, the tribunal 2 adjourned the trial until Sunday.
Meanwhile, defence counsel Mizanul Islam ended the cross-examination of the prosecution’s seventh witness in the case against Maulana Abdus Subhan.