A witness against war crimes suspect Mobarak Hossain Wednesday said the accused and his accomplices took him and over 100 other villagers for “helping the freedom fighters” to a Pakistani army camp in Akhaura of Brahmanbaria. He said 33 of them were killed.
“On August 22, 1971, Mobarak, with his people asked us to join a meeting which was to be held in the house of one Nur Boksh to form a local unit of the Peace Committee,” Ali Akbar, the fifth prosecution witness, said in his deposition at the International Crimes Tribunal 1.
He said about 130 of them went to the meeting. “When we arrived there, Mobarak and his accomplices wanted to know those of us whose relatives had joined the Liberation War. Suddenly, the army cordoned the house.
Mobarak and his people tied our hands with jute-made ropes and took us on six boats to the nearest army camp.
After reaching there, Mobarak separated 33 of us from the rest. Those people were killed that night by the Pakistani army,” Akbar said.
After his deposition, the witness identified Mobarak sitting in the dock.
Mobarak faces five charges of crimes against humanity, which include torturing Ashuranjan Deb at a razakar camp, as well as abductions and killings in Shyampur, between August and December 1971.
According to the charge sheet, after the war, Mobarak was a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s union unit in Akhaura. Later he joined the Awami League but the party expelled him two years ago.
