Fear, silence reign in Raozan after Salaudin Quader Chowdhury’s final verdict

Fear still stalks parts of Raozan in Chittagong, where Salauddin Quader Chowdhury had engineered a massacre of Hindus during the Liberation War.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence given to the BNP leader for such crimes.

But the residents of ‘Kundeshwari’ and ‘Jagatmalla Parhas’ were reluctant to open up to the media as a climate of fear and tension reigns. The few who spoke did so strictly on the condition of anonymity. 

Even after so many years, and the top court’s verdict confirming Chowdhury’s death sentence, fear seemed to be writ large on people’s faces.

Doors were shut and no one answered the knocks.  

The ruling Awami League, however, took out a march to celebrate the verdict and distributed sweets.

But only a few ordinary people joined the celebrations; even those who had testified against the flamboyant politician stayed away.

The eldest son of the late Muslim League leader, Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, Salauddin Quader, born in Gahira in 1949, was a four-time MP from Raozan.

His father had become the general secretary of the Muslim League before the 1947 Partition. A minister in Ayub Khan’s 1962 Cabinet, Fazlul Quader later became Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly. 

The family that had resorted to wanton violence to abort the birth of Bangladesh still inspired fear after independence, especially among the Hindus.  

The killing of Kundeshwari Oushadhalaya owner Nutan Chandra Singha at Raozan’s Gahira on Apr 13 was one of the four incidents that sealed Chowdhury’s fate.

The main door of the Kundeshwari Oushadhalaya Bhaban was shut after the verdict was announced in Dhaka. A security guard stood at the gate, and police personnel could be seen inside.

“It’s not allowed,” said the security man blocking the way even after 30 minutes of persuasion.

A group of students rushed out of Kundeshwari School when the bell rang at 11am.

But they shied away from reporters.

Ajoy Mallik, who lives in Kundeshwari, said: “This verdict is great news for the people of Raozan. Nothing can be better. We’ll be cleansed of the taints of this traitor once the sentence is carried out.”

Salauddin Quader got 20 years for twice leading the Pakistani army into Jagatmalla Parha, a locality inhabited by the Hindu community.

</div>  </p><p>Thirty-two men and women, who had gathered in a house, were massacred on Apr 13, and three more were killed on May 5.</p><p>On Wednesday, all houses in the village had their doors shut. Some had locks hanging on the outside.</p><p>There were people in at least eight to nine houses, but no one ventured outside.</p><p>Reporters knocked but none answered.</p><p>Jagatmalla had become similarly desolate after the war crimes tribunal sentenced Salauddin Quader to death on Oct 1, 2013.</p><p> <div class="inline-image"> <img src="https://cdn.bdnews24.com/media/2015/07/29/103_jogot_mollopara_3.jpg" width="100%" alt=""/> <p id="inline-image-caption"></p> </div> On Wednesday, <a href="http://bdnews24.com/"></a>bdnews24.com correspondent and other reporters returned to Jagatmalla around noon with Raozan Police Station OC Pradip Kumar Das.  </p><p>Das called prosecution witness Ashish Chowdhury of Jagatmalla from his cell phone.</p><p>His wife, Mary Chowdhury, peered from behind a slightly ajar door and agreed to speak.</p><p>“My father-in-law (Premangshu Chowdhury) and husband’s elder brother (Ontu Chowdhury) were killed during the war,” she said.  </p><p>She, however, refused to speak before a TV camera despite several requests made in the presence of police.</p><p>“We always live in fear,” she said.</p><p>OC Pradip Das told <a href="http://bdnews24.com/"></a>bdnews24.com: “Raozan is not like what it was before. I don’t know why they are so afraid.”  </p>