War crimes: Netrokona’s Taher, Noni’s trial starts

A special tribunal has ordered the commencement of trial of Netrokona’s Md Obaidul Haq alias Abu Taher and Ataur Rahman Noni facing war crimes charges.

They have been charged with six counts of crimes including abduction, torture, loot, arson and murder during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.
 
The first war crimes tribunal indicted the two on Monday and fixed Apr 5 for witness deposition.
 
An estimated three million people were killed and millions were forced to flee to neighbouring India during the nine-month war with Pakistan in 1971.
 
According to the tribunal’s investigation agency, Taher and Noni had come out strongly against Bangladesh’s independence and joined the local ‘Razakar’ force, collaborators who assisted the Pakistani occupation army to thwart Bengalis’ struggle for freedom.
 
They were allegedly known as ‘notorious Razakars’ for their atrocities in Netrokona’s various areas including Sadar and Barhatta Thana.
 
Taher, the alleged Razakar commander, occupied Balay Bihari Biswas’s house in the town and set up a Razakar camp there, the prosecution investigators claimed.
 
Charges against them include abduction, torture and killing of 15 unarmed people apart from the torching and looting of about 450 houses.
 
International Crimes Tribunal-1 Chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim read out the charges in the presence of the accused on Monday.
 
The prosecution’s probe body had begun investigations on June 6, 2013 and submitted their findings on Nov 5 last year.
 
Taher and Noni were arrested on Aug 12, 2014. The tribunal took cognisance of charges against them on Dec 11 the same year.