A prosecution witness in a war crimes case yesterday said Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Kashem Ali had instructed al-Badr members to torture and kill Tuntu Sen and Ranjit Das among many others at Daleem Hotel in Chittagong City for supporting the independence of Bangladesh.
Sunil Kanti Bardhan alias Dulal said he had also been taken to the al-Badr torture centre on December 14, 1971 and was released two days later.
In his hour-long deposition, the fourth witness told the war crimes tribunal: “I heard from detainees of Daleem Hotel that both Tuntu and Ranjit along with some others were killed on direction of Mir Kashem Ali.”
Sunil gave a stunning description of how the al-Badr members had shot down the detainees and dumped their bodies.
The International Crimes Tribunal 2 led by Justice Obaidul Hassan recorded the testimony. Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah is the other member of the tribunal. Mir Kashem, the Jamaat-e-Islami Executive Council member, was on the dock.
He is facing 14 charges of crimes against humanity he had committed during the war in Chittagong when he had been a commander of para-militia force al-Badr that collaborated with the Pakistani occupation army. The formal trial against him began on November 18 last year.
The witness said he had been caught from Chaktai of the town by the al-Badr men on a day in late November and taken to their camp at Dost Panjabi’s building of Chamrar Gudam area to collect information about freedom fighters.
He said the detainees had been shot at a hanging latrine on the bank of Chaktai Canal and the bodies dumped in the water. Sunil said he had been taken to the latrine twice, but the al-Badr men did not kill him because they wanted to get information out of him.
“On December 13, 1971, I noticed that the lights of the camp were being removed and an al-Badr member named Kamrul said they would transfer me to Daleem Hotel where Mir Kashem Ali would not spare me.”
“And finally on December 14, all the detainees were taken by a truck to Daleem Hotel where Mir Kashem asked us to give information about the freedom fighters.” There were many detainees in a room on the ground floor. “As we were not giving information, Mir Kashem threatened to kill us,” the witness said.
Sunil’s mother, with the help of the then Chittagong College principal, managed al-Badr commander Shah Alam to free him from the camp on December 16, 1971. The other detainees were freed on that day too.
After the end of his deposition, defence counsel Mizanul Islam began cross examining the witness. The case proceedings were adjourned until today.
Also the Jamaat treasurer and key fancier of the party, Mir Kashem was arrested at the newspaper office in the capital on June 17, 2012. He is a director of Islami Bank Limited and chairman of Diganta Media Corporation that runs the daily Naya Diganta and Diganta Television.
According to the defence, Mir Kashem is the founding trustee and also a member responsible for administration of the Ibn Sina Trust and director (marketing) of Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical Industries. He was also the member secretary of Islami Bank Foundation, a sister concern of Islami Bank.
Additionally, he is the chairman of Agro Industrial Trust, and chairman and director of Keari Limited, which is involved in real estate and tourism business. The Jamaat leader is the member secretary of Fouad Al-Khateeb Charity Foundation.
On April 28, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told parliament that Jamaat had signed an agreement with a US lobbyist firm to make the trial of war criminals “controversial.” He said Mir Kashem had paid $25m for this purpose while claiming that the government had copies of the receipts and the agreement.
According to the prosecution, Mir Kashem was the Chittagong district general secretary of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, and commander of al-Badr (a para militia group that assisted Pakistani occupation army during the war). He had set up makeshift camps at different places of the port city where people who were assisting the freedom fighters were brought in and tortured.
