A prosecution witness yesterday said the killings of several intellectuals were led by Chowdhury Mueen Uddin while Ashrafuzzaman Khan brush-fired them.
Fifteenth prosecution witness Omar Hayat submitted in the International Crimes Tribunal 2 that he came to know these from one Mofiz, who might be the driver of a mud-covered microbus the al-Badr members had used to pick up the intellectuals on the eve of the liberation in 1971.
Omar is the brother-in-law of martyred physician Golam Mortuza, who along with Dr Fazle Rabbee and Dr Alim Chowdhury used to run a secret hospital for freedom fighters during the war. “On January 4, 1972, we recovered the body of Golam Mortuza from a hole behind Mirpur Mazar along with several other decomposed bodies. Mofiz told the people who were looking for bodies of the missing victims about Mueen and Ashrafuzzaman’s involvement with the killings.”
“Mofiz also named Sirajul Haq Khan, Santosh Chandra Bhattachariya, Faizul Mohi, Professor Anwar Pasha and Syed Rashidul Hasan who were brush fired by Ashrafuzzaman,” the 71-year-old retired assistant professor said.
“Mofiz also told us that Mueen was the mastermind behind these killings.”
Mueen and Ashrafuzzaman were indicted on July 15 jointly in 11 counts of crimes against humanity. The charges include killing of 18 intellectuals. According to the prosecution, Mueen was al-Badr’s “operation-in-charge” while Ashrafuzzaman played the role of “chief executor.”
The witness said he heard from his sister Sayeeda Mortuza that his brother-in-law had been picked up on a mud-covered microbus on December 14. “Mofiz could be the driver of that microbus,” he said. “Golam Mortuza was blindfolded with the saree of his 12-year-old daughter when he was picked up by some al-Badr members.”
“Few days later, a police officer named Samad brought driver Mafiz to my sister’s house. At that time, they were living in a staff quarter of Dhaka University on Fuller Road. They informed us that some dead bodies were found behind the area of Mirpur Mazar. Samad also told us to search for Golam [Mortuza] there.”
Omar also said, following this, he and his sister had gone to Mirpur Mazar on January 4, 1972 along with martyred intellectual Sirajul Haq’s son Enamul Haq Khan, an army official of the Indian aligned forces, Samad and Mofiz.
“Mofiz showed us some holes that were filled up after ditching the dead bodies. We dugout one of the holes and found a shoe of my brother-in-law. I could recognise it since Golam [Mortuza] used to wear that kind of ‘pump shoe.’ The first dead body we recovered from that hole was his. We found him blindfolded with his daughter’s saree.”
“Later I read news on Mueen and Ashrafuzzaman in different newspapers. And I was pretty shocked when I came to know both of them were Dhaka University students and Mueen was a direct student of martyred Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury.”
Later, defence counsels Abdus Shukkur Khan and Salma Hye cross examined the witness. The tribunal has been set today for further procedure of the case.
