A prosecution witness in the case against Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami on Monday alleged that the accused was the “chief of staff” of al-Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani occupation army, during the 1971 Liberation war.
Md Abdus Selim Latif, 60, the 14th prosecution witness said this at the International Crimes Tribunal 1 while replying to a question of defence counsel Mizanul Islam.
After the end of cross-examination, the tribunal set tomorrow for the next witness.
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.
Latif, a freedom fighter from Pabna, on Sunday placed his deposition against the Jamaat ameer.
He said: “On August 15, 1971, we went to Bera to free the area. Some al-Badr members captured me and my cousin Alauddin.
They followed Nizami’s orders. They took us to Nagarbari Army camp. There I saw Nizami talking to an army person.”
He said they were tortured for not giving any information about the whereabouts of other freedom fighters. He also accused Nizami for ordering the killing of his father.
While replying to a question from the defence counsel yesterday, the witness said: “Although Nizami was a civilian, he was known as the ‘chief of staff’ or the chief of al-Badr, the notorious force that he formed.”
Mizanul Islam questioned him for two and a half hours.
He argued that though Latif was not abducted or tortured by Nizami, he was implicating the accused to satisfy the government.
