BSS, Dhaka :
Two new prosecution witnesses (PWs) on Sunday testified against Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam, charged with committing crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation, at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1. AYM Moazzem Ali and Tapan Kumar Adhikari submitted their depositions as PW-16 and 17 respectively. The two witnesses, whose loved ones were tortured and even killed by the Pakistani occupation army and their local accomplices like ATM Azhar, described their wartime ordeal at the tribunal.
Tapan, 59, submitted how his father and younger brother were apprehended by the troops and later killed along with eight others on April 3, 1971, at Dahiganj Crematory in Rangpur. “We did not even been able to criminate our loved ones as we did not get their bodies. When local people went to collect their bodies from the place, where they were gunned down, the local collaborators of the army drove them away,” said Tapan. “Luckily one Dinesh Chandra Bhoumik survived that incident with gun shot on his leg and described the whole incident to us. He said that leaders of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat, including Azhar used to go to Rangpur Cantonment and hold meetings with the army,” he added.
After their depositions, advocate Abdus Subhan Tarafder, counsel for Azhar, corss-examined them and the tribunal then adjourned the hearing till June 3.
Meanwhile, the prosecution on Sunday submitted two petitions, one for seeking permission of the tribunal to submit some additional documents against the accused, and another for accepting the testimony of a PW recorded by the investigation officer as deposition. The tribunal accepted the first plea after a brisk hearing.
The ICT-1 on November 12, 2013, indicted Azhar for committing crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation. According to the prosecution, Azhar, now 61, was commander of Rangpur district unit of Al-Badr during the War of Liberation.
