Musician Bulbul testifies against Ghulam Azam

He corroborates the presence of Siru Miah, his son and several others at Brahmanbaria jail during the Liberation War.

Dhaka, Oct 4 (bdnews24.com)—Musician and lyricist Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul on Thursday corroborated at the first war crimes tribunal the presence of Siru Miah, his son and several others at Brahmanbaria jail during the Liberation War.

The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal-1, set up to try crimes against humanity during the War of Independence in 1971, indicted Jamaat-e-Islami guru Ghulam Azam for the murder of 38 including SI Siru Miah and his son Anwar Kamal.

Ghulam Azam's other charges include incitement, complicity and conspiracy of war crimes.

Appearing as the 14th prosecution witness against the former Jamaat chief, Bulbul described his time at the Brahmanbaria town jail in 1971. He told the court of the discussions he had with Siru Miah, his son and others on the evening of their execution.

The Pakistan Army took 39 people out of the jail on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr for execution. Bulbul described the entire scene as he had seen it at the jail.

The musician said that one Pakistani officer was calling out to inmates one by one. "They separated 43 people and I was almost the only one left."

He asked a Brigadier on the scene whether the military would kill the others or him. The officer first asked him if the musician knew that it was a holy day and Bulbul replied that he did. "Anyone who dies today will go straight to the Almighty."

When asked again whether the soldiers would shoot the rest, the officer indicated that was what they would do.

Bulbul then described the conversation he had with Siru Miah, his son, Dhaka University student Nazrul and others.

The musician asked when the Pakistani soldiers were going to execute him, and the officers said, "Two days later, because you were caught two days later."

Bulbul then successfully managed to convince the Pakistani officer to leave his other companions since they were caught with him as well.

This turned out to be the saving grace for him and his companions because they managed to flee from a Peace Committee office a day later when they were taken there for torture.

Ghulam Azam, as the leader of Jamaat and allegedly playing a pivotal in setting up the Razakars, has been charged with the murder of 38 people as he could have supposedly prevented that from happening by dint of his standing and office in 1971.

He said that later in 2008, Siru Miah's wife contacted him over phone after hearing him recount the events of that evening on television.

The lyricist had not mentioned Ghulam Azam's name and the cross-examination took barely 10 minutes after which the tribunal called for the prosecution to present further witnesses.

Sheikh Farid Alam took the stand as the 15th prosecution witness, but he too did not mention Azam's name and only said that his land housed an office of the Jamaat-e-Islami with a temporary madrasa on the land that he owned beside his house — 141 West Nakhalparha.

Leading questions

The prosecutor deposing the question, however, could hardly avoid leading questions which the defence lawyers marked well but let go in good humour.

Sultan Mahmud, having asked the witness about the address and established that his house was in Nakhalpara, asked, "Do you own any property other than this 141 West Nakhalparha?"

Once the witness had answered that his father did buy the 142 West Nakhalparha plot as well, the prosecutor asked, "Was there any structure on it?"

To this, the witness said that there was a Jamaat office.

The prosecutor then said, "Your father was alive then?" He then rephrased his question and asked, "Who had rented out the place?"

The witness answered that it was his father who had initially rented out that space.

"Once you came back after the war, was the Jamaat office still there?" By this time the defence lawyers were amused at the prosecutor missing the point entirely, and some even laughed out audibly. The prosecutor looked back at them wondering what the matter was and senior counsel Mizanul Islam swayed his head indicating that he was not objecting to the matter.

The cross-examination was declined.

No witness again

The tribunal, having already passed an order in the Sayedee trial because there was not a second defence witness after the first one, asked the prosecutor to present the next witness.

The prosecutor said he did not have any more witnesses and pointed out that he had no idea that the defence would be done with its cross-examination with both his witnesses so quickly.

Tribunal member Justice Jahangir Hossain asked prosecutor Zead-Al-Malum what they would do, now that there were no more witnesses.

Malum said the matter should not be taken so mechanically and said that the court might make a full investigation into how long it had taken him to produce his 15 witnesses and how it had gone in other cases.

"But when this happens the next time, what do we do?" asked Justice Hossain.

The chief prosecutor, Ghulam Arieff Tipoo, stood up to say that although there were two witnesses ready, their cross-examination went rather swiftly and that is why the court had to rise early on the day.

"We do not want to keep sitting," said Justice Hossain and Tipoo replied, "Neither do we."

Tribunal Chairman Justice Mohammad Nizamul Huq said he wanted to make this perfectly clear. "The next witness must be ready when you have one at the stand. We do not want any further embarrassment."

Malum said that it was exactly what he had done. "I had the second witness ready. And you gave them until 4pm for cross-examining the first witness. But who knew both the witnesses would be done long before that!"

Tribunal member Justice Anwarul Haque asked prosecutor Zead-Al-Malum, "Are you suggesting that the defence actually declined cross-examination to put you in trouble?"

The entire court laughed at the judge's humour.

Justice Huq called it a day saying with finality that there would be no further adjournment in either Ghulam Azam or Delwar Hossain Sayedee's case. "Take it from us, both sides."

bdnews24.com/ta/bd/2123h