Martyred journalist Selina Parvin’s son Sumon Jahid, the third prosecution witness against Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan in the war crimes cases, gave his deposition before the International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday.
Crying like a child almost throughout the duration of the deposition, Sumon described the abduction, torture and death of his mother.
Sumon said: “Delwar Hossain was the only person to escape the Rayerbazar killing ground. He told me in 1996 that Mueen picked my mother up from the Mohammadpur Physical Training Centre. Some 20-25 abducted people, including my mother, had been kept there. He also told me how my mother was tortured and killed.
“Mother was not a famous journalist in 1971. But she edited a magazine called ‘Sheelalipi’ in which many noted poets and writers, including Munier Chowdhury, Zahir Raihan and Shahidullah Kaiser, wrote regularly.
“I learnt from Delwar Hossain that Mueen Uddin was the ‘operation-in-charge’ while Ashrafuzzaman played the role of ‘chief executor’ of Al-Badr.
“I believe Mueen was involved in my mother’s murder. On December 13, some people come to our house. One of my uncles and I saw from the terrace that a jeep, a microbus and a military truck were in front of our house. Advocate Kamrul Islam Syed Salauddin was our neighbour then. He opened the collapsible gate.
“They knocked on our door. As mother opened the door, they shouted: ‘hands up!’ They told my mother that she would have to go with them to the Secretariat. When my mother told them she could not go with them because she did not have a curfew pass, they said she did not need a pass to go with them. Mother then came to me, caressed me on my head and asked me to have my lunch. She said she would be back very soon. That was the last time I heard from her.
“After liberation, on December 17, we found my mother’s dead body in Rayerbazar,” Sumon said.
“After liberation, I learnt that she donated all her earnings from the Sheelalipi to the freedom fighters. Mueen knew that. Both he and my mother were from Feni. He used to call her ‘Bubu’ [elder sister]. That was the reason Mueen sent those men to abduct my mother,” Sumon said in his deposition.
After deposition, tribunal-appointed defence counsels Abdus Sukkur Khan and Salma Hye grilled Sumon briefly before the court was adjourned for the day.
The second Tribunal began hearing in absentia on 11 counts of war crimes against Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman on July 15. The alleged crimes include the killing of 18 intellectuals including journalist Selina Parvin.
On May 11, the tribunal ordered that a public announcement be made in newspapers, asking the two war crime suspects to appear before it within 10 days of the publication.
Following the order, notices were published in the national dailies on May 12, asking them to appear before the court.
Since they did not respond to the order, the prosecution submitted formal charges against them On April 25.
