Confiscate Goods Hill
To them the Goods Hill, the mansion of war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, is a symbol of horror, a place where many were killed and brutally tortured. The mere sight of the house sends shivers down the spine of the victims even today.
They now want the government to confiscate the Goods Hill at Rahmatganj in Chittagong city and turn it into a museum so that the future generation could know about the heinous acts Salauddin and his father Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, the then Muslim League leader, had carried out there during the Liberation War.
Nizamuddin Ahmed, a victim of torture at the house, said: “The Goods Hill should be confiscated by the government and be used for the people of the country.”
Nizamuddin along with two of his friends was taken to the Goods Hill in July 1971 from their hideout on Hajari Lane. Salauddin was one of them who took them there.
They were brutally tortured in the house on Salauddin's instructions.
“I am very happy with the Supreme Court verdict as the culprit has been given the proper punishment,” said Nizamuddin who was one of the prosecution witnesses in the war crimes case against Salauddin.
The house earned notoriety as Fazlul Quader and his son Salauddin had turned it into a torture centre for the freedom-loving people and the Hindus in 1971.
Another witness M Salimullah, who testified before the tribunal, said: “I thought they would kill me eventually. I had lost all hope. I heard the screams of several people being tortured in the garage of the Goods Hill on the horrific night of September 2, 1971.”
Salimullah, a businessman of Chittagong, was abducted that night, taken to the mansion, tortured and kept confined in the garage. He would have died there had a Pakistan policeman not given him water.
“The house should be made the Chittagong branch of Liberation War museum, which would illustrate the Liberation War history of Chittagong,” he opined.
Echoing Salimullah's views, freedom fighter Nurul Absar Chowdhury, who along with his fellow fighters had attempted a failed attack on Salauddin in 1971, said the house should be turned into a Liberation War memorial museum.
Leaders in Chittagong district and city units of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad at a rally on Chittagong Press Club premises yesterday made the same demand.
Mohammad Shahabuddin, commander of Chittagong district command of the Sangsad, told The Daily Star that Salauddin Quader's family has no right to live in the house anymore since the house was used for torturing a number of freedom-loving people.
Comments