UNB, Dhaka :
A freedom fighter prosecution witness, who liberated Tarail thana area of Kishoreganj on December 14, 1971 with his comrades-in-arms in a two-day heavy gunfight, on Monday testified to the facts of crimes allegedly perpetrated by Syed Hachen Ali alias Hasan, now on the run.
“I seek justice as Razakar Hachen had committed the crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, killing unarmed people, carrying out plundering and burning down houses of the freedom-loving people in villages around Tarail of Kishoreganj,” said Nurul Huq alias Lal Miah, now, 66, while giving deposition to the International Crimes Tribunal-1 as prosecution witness (PW-5).
The PW said, “On April 27 in 1971, a group of Razakars led by Hachen stormed into our house located near Tarail thana and ransacked the house followed by torching that also engulfed a neighbour’s house. “Lal Miah told the tribunal that Pakistan occupation forces in association with its collaborator Razakar militia had set up makeshift army camps at Tarail Dak Bungalow and local High School while a Razakar camp at Tarail thana on April 23, 1971.
As the PW, during his deposition was providing information of a series of killing with events that had happened on different dates and at various places during wartime blaming the accused without any reference and sources, the tribunal interrupted and askedcase-conducting prosecutor Mohammad Ali about its evidential value, terming those ‘political speeches’.
In response, the prosecutor apparently failed to satisfy the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice M Enayetur Rahim. The deposition over, the tribunal adjourned the trial for Wednesday. Earlier, the tribunal had recorded the evidence of a martyr’s son, PW-4 Khogesh Chandra Paul, through cross-examinations by state defence counsel A Shukur Khan.
On November 11, the tribunal indicted accused Syed M Hachen alias Hasan Ali in absentia for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
After fulfilling the requirement of law for the trial of a fugitive accused, the tribunal on September 15 took cognisance of the charges brought against war crimes accused Hachen who has been absconding since filing of the case.
According to the prosecution, the investigator has found Hachen’s involvement in some war crimes like murder, loot, arson, torture, deportation and genocide at Tarail in Kishoreganj and the proof of his collaboration with the Pakistan occupation forces as a member of its auxiliary outfit Razakar during the Liberation War in 1971.
