‘Birangana’ Mansura Begum, who was violated and tortured by war criminal ATM Azharul Islam 43 years ago, wants his quick execution.
Published : 30 Dec 2014, 06:01 PM
The war heroine was happy with the death sentence a special court handed down to the Jamaat-e-Islami leader on Tuesday.
It was for Azhar’s atrocities that she had lost her baby in her womb.
The 65-year old wife of freedom fighter ‘Mostofa’, 75, said, “I prayed after Azhar, a debaucher, got the death sentence.”
“Now I’ll be able to die in peace after the execution of the death sentence,” Mansura said.
Azhar, the then Rangpur unit chief of the party’s student front Islami Chhatra Sangha, along with three Pakistan Army men had raped her in her house and then took her to a torture cell at Rangpur Town Hall.
Mansura, who was pregnant at that time, lost the foetus after 18 days.
She was the first witness to testify against Azhar at the International Crimes Tribunal-1.
“I had been waiting in front of the TV at my neighbour’s house since the morning to hear the verdict,” she told bdnews24.com.
“After hearing the verdict, I came back home and prayed for the fast execution of debauchee Azhar,” she said.
She burst into tears speaking about Azhar’s torture cell.
“I had been in the Town Hall with many other women. The Pakistani troops tortured me there after cruelly violating me in my house,” she said.
Following the loss of the foetus, she became weak. “Someone took me to my house after that. From that day, I have been demanding punishment for Azhar. My demand has been fulfilled today.”
Her husband Mostofa was the second witness in the Azhar case.
He had gone to India for guerrilla training leaving his pregnant wife with his parents in 1971.
“None but Azhar directed the Pakistani forces to my house where they violated my wife and then tortured her in the torture cell at Town Hall,” he said.
Mostofa said from his neighbours he got the news of his father’s death due to torture by the Pakistani forces.
He, too, demanded quick execution of the verdict.
“I wanted exemplary punishment and the tribunal gave it.”
“Rangpur will be purged of infamy if the verdict is executed quickly,” he added.