UNB, Dhaka :
The defence counsel for war crimes accused Maulana A Sobhan on Sunday outright denied the charges made against his client of carrying out operation in Kulonia and Dogachhi villages in Pabna killing five people after abduction and torching several houses in collaboration with the Pakistan occupation army during the Liberation War.
Defence counsel Mizanul Islam also refuted another charge made against the top ranking Jamaat-e-Islami leader of picking up 18 people from Bharara village in Pabna and killed them at Nurpur Power Plant and near Debottar Bazar.
He came up with the view while making defence case summing-up arguments for the fourth day before the International Crimes Tribunal -2, claiming the evidence of the prosecution witnesses (PWs) in this regard as confusing, contradictory and cooked up. The testimony made by the PWs has no credibility as they had provided ‘tutored evidence’ before the tribunal, Mizanul said. The defence counsel further claimed that his client had no involvement in war crimes in 1971.
The defence arguments remained inconclusive. On December 31, 2013, the tribunal framed charges against accused Maulana A Sobhan for his involvement in crimes against humanity, including genocide, during the 1971 Liberation War. The tribunal on September 19 last year, took cognisance of the charges against Maulana Sobhan as it found a strong prima facie case against the accused under sections 3(2), 4(1) and 4(2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973. On September 20, 2012, Sobhan, the number three man in the Jamaat-e-Islami hierarchy, was held by the members of an army intelligence agency at the Bangabandhu Bridge toll plaza in Tangail in a case of violence. Later, the accused was handed over to the police.
