Nizami, Mojahid face murder charge
A freedom fighter (FF) yesterday filed a murder case against Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, five of their party men and three non-Bangalees for the massacre of 345 people during the Liberation War.
Mohammad Amir Hossain Mollah, a wounded FF and resident of Pallabi’s Duaripara, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, Dhaka.
The complainant stated that the Jamaat men killed them in the capital’s Mirpur area. The victims included 21 of his relatives, one colleague, 43 locals of Mirpur and 280 others from different areas of the country on April 24 and December 18 in 1971, he said.
Meanwhile, another case was filed against Nizami, Mojaheed and seven other party men with a Dhaka court on December 17 last year for killing two FFs during the Liberation War. The case was later treated as a regular one with Keraniganj police.
In the case filed yesterday, Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Emran Hossain Chowdhury recorded the complainant’s statement and directed the officer-in-charge (OC) of Pallabi Police Station to register the murder case as a first information report (FIR).
The court also asked the OC to investigate the case and submit report to it.
Amir showed 15 people, including himself and the victims’ parents and relatives as witnesses in the case.
Other accused are assistant secretary generals of Jamaat Mohammad Abdul Quader Molla and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Jamaat central leader and former Islami Chhatra Sangha president Sardar Abdul Salam and activist Khawza Ashim (dead), and Akhter ‘Gunda’, Newaz and Doma (non-Bangalees who later fled to Pakistan)
The complainant said 60-70 other unidentified non-Bangalees took part in the massacre.
The case was filed under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 448 (house-trespass), 302 (murder), 34 (criminal liability), 326 (grievous hurt), 307 (attempted murder) and 436 (torching) of Bangladesh Penal Code.
Amir, an FF of Sector-2, said he received training at Lailapur army camp in Assam of India and later joined the Liberation War to free the country from Pakistani occupation.
The complaint said Quader Molla formed a Razakar team consisting of 70 to 80 non-Bangalees to help save the integrity of Pakistan, and the occupation forces started killing hundreds and thousands of people in the country.
After fazr prayers on April 24, 1971, Pakistani forces and a gang of 100 to 150 led by Quader surrounded Alapdigram in Mirpur, raided the village with firearms and killed 344 people. Of them, 64 were locals including 21 of Amir’s relatives. The others were farm workers from different districts.
Amir said in his complaint the killers then dumped the bodies in three mass graves. The authorities are yet to locate the mass graves but he has done so.
On December 18, 1971, a team of 100 to 150 FFs led by thana unit commander Jahiruddin Babar and assistant thana unit commander Mominul Haq surrounded some ‘camps’ in Mirpur and Mohammadpur areas. Nizami, Mojaheed, Quader,and others then started firing that left freedom fighter Abdus Sattar dead, the complaint aid.
Amir said he was wounded in the fight and is still physically impaired.
Advocates Abu Mohammad Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Basar Bhandari and Ashraf Ul Haq appeared on behalf of the complainant.
original source daily star | Link news by Anim Anamika
