Tofazzal Hossain Master, who studied at Boalmari Madrasa with Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, Sunday alleged that Nizami was a war criminal during the 1971 Liberation War.
The former teacher at Santhia Government Pilot School, testifying as the 10th prosecution witness at the first International Crimes Tribunal, said during the 1971 war, the Jamaat leader had ordered the killing of unarmed villagers.
He was cross-examined by defense counsel Mizanul Islam. After his statement ended and the tribunal adjourned proceedings until June 4.
Tofazzal said the pilot school had been closed down and a razakar camp set up there around mid-May. “When the camp was opened, we saw Nizami, Abdus Sobhan and Maulana Ishaque along with 100 to 150 razakars.”
The schoolteacher and freedom fighter associate said Nizami ran activities against pro-liberation forces from the camp and Nizami and Sobhan’s cohorts carried out attacks on the local Hindu community.
“They tortured them, looted their belongings, and burned their houses. Razakars raped the wife of Sunil Zoarder in front of her husband and she later committed suicide.”
In his testimony, Tofazzal said Nizami and his group abducted two people from Sonatola village and took them to Daulatpur.
The victims were tortured and shot. Similar detentions were made and most of those taken never returned.
Tofazzal Hossain said he knew Nizami was the president of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami at the start of 1971.
The school teacher’s testimony corresponds with the two before him, who said Nizami went to the area to create a peace committee to support the Pakistani occupational forces and carried out anti-liberation activities from there.
Nizami was indicted on May 28, last year on 16 counts of crimes against humanity. The charges against Nizami include genocide, rape, torture, abduction, confinement and conspiracy, which he allegedly committed in Pabna and Dhaka during the War.
A new witness against war crimes suspect and former Awami League leader, Mobarak Hossain, yesterday claimed that the accused killed his father, Abdul Khaleque during the 1971 Liberation War.
Rafiqul Islam, 53, is the younger brother of Khodeja Begum, who had filed a case against Mobarak over the killing in Akhaura, Brahmanbaria. Earlier, Khodeja also testified at the International Crimes Tribunal 1 as the second prosecution witness.
After his deposition at the tribunal, defence counsel Ahsanul Huq quizzed Rafiqul. Then the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, adjourned the session till June 9 when the prosecution will present their next witness.
Rafiqul, echoing his sister, said Mobarak and his accomplices abducted his father and took him to the local razakar camp during the war. “On November 11, 1971, they took my father to the local razakar camp that was situated at the Suhilpur union parishad building. When my mother and grandmother took some food for my father there, one Abdur Rouf, who was a razakar member at that camp, received the food from them.”
The defence counsel suggested that the witness was lying over Abdur Rouf’s receiving the food. The witness insisted that he spoke the truth.
He told the tribunal: “Rouf told my mother to pursue Mobarak to ensure my father’s freedom as he was the commander of that camp. Then, we requested our neighbour Khalek Maulana to approach Mobarak. He promised us that he would go to the camp the next morning. But in the morning, we heard from people that my father had been killed and his body was left on the bank of river Titas.”
The five charges against Mobarak also include killing of 33 people in Akhaura, torturing of Ashuranjan Deb in razakar camp, and abductions and killings in Shyampur, between August and December 1971.
Khodeja filed a case with the Brahmanbaria court on May 3, 2009, which was transferred to the International Crimes Tribunal in 2011 for order. The tribunal then asked its investigation agency to investigate the matter. The probe took place from July of last year to January, earlier this year.
The prosecution pressed formal charges against Mobarak on April 23. The charge sheet says he was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami’s union unit in Akhaura after the war. Later, he joined the Awami League and was expelled two years ago.
