The lone survivor of Rayerbazar mass killing at the war crimes tribunal said Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan had led the killing of intellectuals that took place on December 14, 1971.
Delawar Hossain, the 22nd prosecution witness, also described how the collaborators along with Pakistani occupational army had tortured and killed intellectual Munier Chowdhury, Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury and Selina Parvin.
“I witnessed the killings [at Rayerbazar] from the beginning to the end. Ashraf and Mueen led the killings. None of the persons confined at Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute and those taken to the killing field did not survive. I am the lone survivor,” Delwar told the International Crimes Tribunal 2 of Justice Obaidul Hasan, Justice Mojibur Rahman Miah and Justice Shahinur Islam.
Hailing from Shyampur, Kosba in Brahmanbaria, the witness also said he had been taken away from his home (215/1, Shantibagh, Shahjahanpur, Dhaka) on December 14, 1971 and fugitive war accused Mueen-Ashraf were among the people who confined him. He used to work as the chief accountant of Green Mercantile Company.
Seventy-year-old Delwar broke into tears several times while sharing his horrific experience of confinement along with several others at the Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute, the then torture cell for the pro-liberation minded people.
He said around 10:30am on December 14, he had gone outside home for some food but most of the shops were closed due to curfew. Sometime after returning home, six armed persons wearing Khaki dress came to his house along with two others who were on plainclothes. Another person wearing army dress was waiting in front of a nearby house.
“They knocked at my door but later they broke into the house. Three wearing Khaki dress were behind me, while two others on civil dress held my arms; they told me ‘an army officer is waiting for you. You have to meet him.’ They took me to the army officer. The two plainclothes persons were calling each other Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman. They were also calling each other brother,” he added.
He was taken to the microbus, painted in black and blue, waiting in front of Pabna Samity office in the area. He saw three-four people in the vehicle blindfolded and their hands tied. The abductors then took his shirt off and blindfolded him too.
“Once I was in, the vehicle stopped several times and every time, they were confining persons. Around noon or 12:30pm, the microbus stopped and they told us to get down,” Delwar said. Later, he was taken to a hall room on a building’s first floor. “They kicked on my back. But I did not fall on the floor but people who were brought there before me.”
At that time, a youth whose hands were not tied came and freed his hand. “After that, I took off the cover of my eyes and asked his name. He answered ‘Tareq’ and said he was a class VIII student.”
He told Delwar that the abductors would torture if he had no blindfold. “I could see tortured people lying on the floor. Some of these persons’ eyes were coming out due to the torture. The floor was full of blood. I took my shirt, soaked it with some blood and blindfolded myself, in a way so that I could see. I also took an abandoned T-shirt from the floor and soaked it up with blood and hid it under my lungi. I did it with a hope that the abductors would think I am already tortured and they will spare me.”
In that evening, he said more people were brought to that room. “Someone requested to free his hand. I did so and recognised that it was Professor Munier Chowdhury. Though I was a student of another department, I knew him, Professor Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury and few others very well.
“Around 8 or 8:30pm, few people armed with iron rods led by two youths came to the room. Due to blackout, they were carrying lanterns. I saw them approaching to Munier Chowdhury and they told him, ‘you have preached your student a lot, now we will preach you.’ They also asked Munier Sir ‘how many books have you written on Rabindranath?’ Munier Sir nodded his head negatively. Then they asked Mofazzal Sir the same question who said he has written books on Rabindranath. They told each other, ‘we do not have much time. These persons need to be killed. They are Indian spies.’”
Then they started heating Prof Munier and Prof Mofazzal with the iron rods. “Munier Sir was forced to put his head in between his legs while sitting on the floor. Then he was hit on his back. He was bleeding heavily through his mouth due to the beating. They also heat me twice on the head and legs. I still have the marks on my body,” the witness said adding that he also heard a woman screaming out of pain. “I guess she was tortured either on the roof or in any other room of the building.
“Around 12 or 12:30 in the night, those youths came again and took everybody outside and forced us to get on a bus. There were 20-22 buses on the field. They took us to a place named Katasur in Mohammadpur. I could see as my blindfold was loose,” Delwar said.
“Later, they were kept waiting beside a pond. Each time 20-25 people tied with one rope were taken to the bank of a beel [water body like a lake] nearby. There were brick fields too. Then they were charged with bayonet until death. This happened till 4 in the morning of December 15,” the witness said in a packed courtroom.
“They took 20 of the group where I was sitting. It was obvious that the next person will be me. In the mean time, I heard a woman’s voice requesting, ‘please, spare me. Do not kill me. I have a little child. If you kill me he will die. You also do have sisters. Please think me as a sister.’”
“Those who were taking her away asked her name. She answered, ‘Selina Parvin, I am a journalist.’ She also told them if they spare her life she would never write again and would not come back to Dhaka.”
But those people killed her by charging bayonet, said Delwar.
“Suddenly I heard someone from my group was calling out by Ashraf and Mueen’s name. He was saying, ‘Ashraf bhai, Mueen Bhai, they will kill me. You are here, so please save me.’ They walked away after hearing the request,” the witness said adding that he had already taken his blindfold off.
“Then I started running towards the beel as fast as I could. I was adamant to be killed by shooting. I did not want to be killed by bayonets,” Delwar said.
“May be few minutes later, they realised that I was running away and started shooting. I jumped into the lake and swam. It was still dark. I did not stop swimming,” he said.
Early in the morning, when he reached the shore in Basila, with the help of two persons he went to a nearby camp of freedom fighters in Atibazar. “Around 3 or 3:30pm, I finally met some freedom fighters. I told them about the Katasur mass killing,” Delwar said adding that he returned home around noon on December 17.
The witness told the tribunal that he first shared the “horrific experience” with the Dainik Bangla newspaper on December 19, 1971. “Later, I shared this with several other media houses including Channel 4, a UK-based television for their documentary titled War Crimes File.”
After his testimony, the state defence counsels cross examined him. The tribunal set September 11 for further procedure in the case.
