Mujaheed guilty of war crimes

Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed has been found guilty of five war crimes charges, including mass murder of intellectuals during the 1971 Liberation War.

International Crimes Tribunal-2 said although two other incidents were found to be true, the prosecution has failed to establish Mujaheed’s involvement in them.

ICT-2 chief Justice Obaidul Hassan read out background to the verdict at 11:05am in a courtroom packed with lawyers, journalists and observers.

Justice Shahinur Islam started reading out the 37-page executive summary of the 209-page verdict in presence of Mujaheed.

“He was an Al Badr commander,” Justice Islam said in the verdict.

It was formed to collaborate with the Pakistani Army and prosecution has proved that he had ‘effective control’ of that force, Justice Islam observed.

The Al-Badr is accused of spearheading the execution of Bengali intellectuals just before the Pakistan army surrendered and Bangladesh attained independence.

The first charge brought by the prosecution says Mujaheed, the leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha, was involved in the abduction of Sirajuddin Hossain, then Executive Editor of the daily Ittefaq, at gunpoint after Hossain had written a newspaper article against the local agents of Pakistani Army.

On Dec 10, 1971, some seven to eight masked youths, armed with rifles abducted the editor from his house at 5, Chamelibag, Dhaka.

He never returned and neither was his body found.

Mujaheed has been found guilty of the charge.

His complicity has been proven in the third and fifth charges levelled against him.

The third charge brought by the prosecution accused him of abduction, confinement and torture of one Ranjit Nath alias Babu Nath of Faridpur in June 1971.

The fourth charge accuses him of torturing and killing several freedom fighters like Jahiruddin Jalal, Bodi, and Rumi.

However, the judges in their verdict said the prosecution had failed to prove Mujaheed’s association in the second and fourth charges.

The second charge is about the genocide at Char Bhadrasan and the fourth is about confinement and torture of Md Abu Yusuf alias Pakhi of Alfadanga.