The verdict that awarded death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali who gained notoriety for torture on freedom fighters at Dalim Hotel in Chittagong brought some solace to the families of martyrs and other victims.
A guerrilla freedom fighter Jahangir Ali Chowdhury whom Al-Badr men tortured in presence of Mir Quasem Ali at a camp in Chittagong in his reaction said: “Today is like a Eid day for our family members. Still I have marks of torture on my body.”
“I am a diabetics patient and doctors have advised me not to eat sweetmeats. But today, I have taken one and also distributed among people I know,” the 66-year-old said over phone.
He said, a month after the war broke out, he went to India and received guerrilla training.
Coming back to Chittagong, he organised guerrilla fighters to carry out operations in the port city.
“Probably two days after Eid-ul-Fitr (in November) in 1971 Al-Badr men and Pakistani army personnel picked me up from my house and took me to Dalim Hotel. There I found my younger brother Dastagir Chowdhury, neighbour Mafiz and some others.”
That evening Al-Badr men Nurul Afsar and Quasem also brought advocate Shafiul Alam in and kept him in the same room. “Blood was oozing from his mouth.”
The following day Afsar and Quasem left a teenage boy [Jasim] in the room. Other hostages later found him dead.
“We saw hostages waiting for death crying for water. They beat up us brutally and dumped the dead bodies in Karnaphuli river. Sometimes Quasem visited the Dalim Hotel. The Al-Badr men narrated to him the torture they inflicted upon us much to his satisfaction,” he said.
Sanaullah Chowdhury, also a victim of Quasem’s torment, said: “It is a much expected verdict. Finally justice has been served.”
Tripping down his memory lane the 67-year-old man described his ordeal in captivity: “Bodies of four to five captives who were tortured to death at the camp I was confined to were dumped into the Karnaphuli river at the fag-end of nine-month bloody war.”
He said, on the evening of November 27, 1971, he was taken to Dalim Hotel by armed Al-Badr men blindfolded with his brother-in-law Habibur Rahman and neighbours Zafar Ahmed and Ilias.
Habibur and he were confined to a room on the first floor from where he managed to see some other captives through the blindfold. But he did not come to know the whereabouts of Ilias.
He said he saw Shah Alam, Tuntu Sen and Ranjit Das inside the room. “Some of them were writhing in pain on the floor.
“While I was in confinement, captives were tortured in different rooms and Mir Quasem Ali, on several occasions, was present. He himself beat me up. Mir Quasem Ali also interrogated me at Dalim Hotel. They killed many captives there.”
On December 9, Sanaullah was released upon giving an undertaking that he would provide information about freedom fighters.
Syed Mohammad Amran, a classmate of Quasem, said he was delighted at the verdict.
Amran said four to five detainees were killed at the Al-Badr torture camp while freedom fighters rescued 100-150 detainees including him from the camp on December 16, 1971.
On the night of November 29, his group got engaged in a front battle with Al-Badr men at Chandgaon in Chittagong and defeated the enemies.
But unfortunately in the early hours of November 30, Al-Badr led by Quasem, Pakistani army and Razakars besieged their house and detained him along with his elder brother and five other cousins and took them blindfolded to NMC School.
Amran said 10 to 12 more freedom fighters were picked up from different parts of the city and were brought to the school later were taken to Dalim Hotel in the city’s Andarkellah area.
“I was taken to a room and tortured brutally by sticks, electric wire and other weapons. I fainted frequently and each time they poured water on my face so that I regained consciousness.”
At one stage, Quasem interrogated him about their arms, training and manpower. A freedom fighter named Jasimuddin was tortured and killed inside the camp.
Jasimuddin’s maternal cousin Hasina Khatun was also deposited against Quasem at the tribunal. After the verdict was pronounced. Hasina talked with Dhaka Tribune over phone.
“The new generation should know about what Jasim and his fellows did for the country. I am happy and hope, one day we will leave a better and enemy free Bangladesh for them,” she said and urged the government to hang Quasem as early as possible.
She said, Al-Badr men led by Mir Quasem Ali tortured Jasim to death. She had learned about Jasim’a death from those who were also held captive in the camp.
Jasim was a candidate of higher secondary examination from Chittagong College when he joined the war.
She had learnt from other freedom fighters that some Al-Badr men had tortured Jasim, a teenage from Sandwip, and left him in a room in the camp in a critical condition, and within a few minutes he died. Jasim’s body had been dumped into the Karnaphuli river.
Yesterday the tribunal-2 announced that ten out of 14 charges have been proved against the 62-year-old Quasem and as the third most powerful man of the Al-Badr force he got the highest penalty – death sentence – for two charges.
One charge is torture and killing of adolescent freedom fighter Jasim along with five unidentified people after Eid-ul-Fitr of 1971 at Dalim Hotel after abduction while the other is kidnapping of Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Ranjit Das Prokash Latu and Tuntu Sen in November, 1971.
Latu and Tuntu were later killed and their bodies were never found.
Mir Quasem is known as a key financier of Jamaat, which was instrumental to bar the birth of Bangladesh by collaborating with Pakistan occupation forces and carrying out crimes against humanity.
