Hasan Ali implicated in killing of 2 more Hindus

A martyr's son yesterday testified that Syed Hasan Ali shot dead his father and their neighbour before the latter's house and Hasan's fellow Razakars forced the families with threats to bury the bodies instead of cremating those as per Hindu funeral rites and looted their house in Kishoreganj during the 1971 Liberation War. 

Meanwhile, another prosecution witness testified that Mahidur Rahman and Afsar Hossain alias Chutu torched their house in Ebadat Biswaser Tola area of Binodpur village and others in neighbouring Kabirajtola village in Chapainawabganj during the Liberation War.

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Narayan Chandra Chakrabarti, son of Jibon Krishna Chakrabarti of Chikni village of Kishoreganj's Tarail upazila, told International Crimes Tribunal 1 as the 19th prosecution witness that he and his cousins heard about the attack from a nearby market on October 8 around 4:00pm.

Once home, they found his mother Milon Rani Chakrabarti and aunt Gouri Rani Chakrabarti crying.

Gouri told him that local Razakar Askar Ali, leading a five-member team of the Pakistani occupation army's auxiliary force, hit her with a rifle butt and took Jibon to their neighbour Kamini Ghosh's residence despite being offered Tk 300 for his release.

Kamini's sister-in-law Rekha Rani Ghosh and one Sanjib, who witnessed the killing, stated the rest to the 54-year-old witness.

Before leaving, the Razakars had threatened to annihilate all the local Hindus if the bodies were not buried. "I want justice," pleaded Narayan before ending the testimony.

State-appointed defence counsel Abdus Shukur Khan completed cross-examining Narayan before the three-member tribunal led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim adjourned proceedings until today.

Now absconding, the alleged Tarail unit Razakar commander faces six charges including genocide committed in Kishoreganj in 1971.

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Mahsin Ali, a freedom fighter operating under Bir Shrestha Captain Mohiuddin Jahangir, said his mother had told him that Chutu, whom she knew beforehand, and two other men torched their house.

From Ebadat Biswaser Tola, the 78-year-old witness and fellow freedom fighters saw Mahidur and Chutu and two others, Moazzem and Gafur, set fire to Bilat Mandol's house in Kabirajtola and stand by as it burned down on October 13, 1971.

The eighth prosecution witness also told International Crimes Tribunal 2 that they did not attack the Razakars for not having sufficient manpower.

They returned to their camp and later that night went to Binodpur again where they found all the houses burnt down.

Earlier, Bilat's son Mohammad Khudi testified as the seventh witness that Mahidur and Chutu torched his house and 40 others in Kabirajtola.