Appearing as the 24th witness Babul Chakrabarti Bulbul told the first war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh that supporters of Muslim League leader Fazlul Quader Chowdhury and his son Salauddin Quader, accompanied by Pakistani soldiers came to his village on that day during the Liberation War.
“They dragged my father out of the house and murdered him,” said Bulbul.
The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal – 1, set up to try crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, has indicted the BNP leader for 23 war crimes charges.
Defence counsel Ahsanul Huq began his cross-examination after the short testimony and pointed out that the witness had not mentioned the names of Salauddin Quader or his father and his statement did not mention those names. The witness said, “I don’t know.”
Huq asked whether the witness had filed a case on Feb 28, 1972 for this genocide. The witness replied that he did not remember.
The witness then said that the villagers had filed the case collectively when the defence counsel mentioned the case number from Boalia Police Station.
Huq said, referring to the complaint, the witness had mentioned in 1972 that his father had died on May 16. The witness said, “I don’t remember.”
Again, referring to that complaint dating back to 1972, the defence counsel said that the witness had mentioned six people for the execution. “You did not mention Fazlul Quader Chowdhury or his son Salauddin Quader in the complaint.”
The witness replied, “I don’t remember.”
At this point Ahsanul Huq jokingly asked whether the witness took any medicine to rejuvenate his memory. The prosecution objected saying it was insulting for the witness amid mild laughter around the court. The tribunal directed that the question be kept out of the records.
The defence counsel then asked the witness if he knew several other people, all hailing from his native Shakpura Village.
The witness said he knew several of them. Ahsanul Huq then said that those individuals had also filed complaints after the Liberation War about the mass killing and none of them mentioned the accused or his father, to which the witness said, “I would not know.”
The proceedings have been adjourned till Apr 4.
The prosecution submitted formal charges against Salauddin Quader on Nov 14, 2011 and the tribunal took them into cognisance three days later.
A former prime ministerial adviser on parliamentary affairs when BNP chief Khaleda Zia was in office, the Chittagong MP was shown arrested for war crimes charges on Dec 20, 2010, five days after his arrest.
The investigating agency submitted a 119-page report with around 8,000-page data to the chief prosecutor on Oct 3 in a bid to prove allegations of war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War.
The BNP leader was indicted on Apr 4 on 23 counts of war crimes.
