A new witness in the trial of Syed Mohammad Qaiser on Monday said members of the then Pakistan occupation army had shot and killed his father and six others following the signal of the accused during the War of Liberation. Nowshad Ali, son of martyr Majot Ali, said this in his testimony as the 11th prosecution witness (PW) at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 on Monday. Nowshad, 54, a guard of Shaistaganj Food Godown in Habiganj, described how he and his brother witnessed the gruesome killings of his father and six of his colleagues.
“Qaiser and his men confined my father and his colleagues in the food storage and left the place, leaving some Pakistani troops to guard them. The next day Qaiser again came to that place and led my father and others to the bank of the river Khoai. There they were made to stand in a line and Pakistani troops shot and killed them following the signal from Qaiser,” Nowshad said with teary eyes.
“All that time, me and my brother Mostafa Ali were witnessing the whole incident from the cover of a nearby sugarcane field,” he added.
After his deposition SM Shahjahan, counsel for Qaiser, cross- examined the PW and the tribunal adjourned the hearing till May 11.
The ICT-2 on February 2, 2014, framed 16 charges of crimes against humanity against the former state-minister for agriculture, who had allegedly raised an auxiliary force to Pakistan army on his name during the war and committed heinous crimes in and around Habiganj.
