The crime that gets him death
Even a two-year-old boy was not spared by Abdul Quader Mollah and his accomplices on March 26, the first day of the Liberation War in 1971.
They killed the boy, hitting him against the ground, slit the throats of his mother and two sisters, and raped his two other sisters, one of whom died from her wounds.
All but one member of the family lost their lives just because Hazrat Ali Laskar, the head of the family, was a supporter of the Awami League and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
More than 42 years after the killings, justice has been done finally, and Mollah has got his due punishment.
The Supreme Court yesterday sentenced the Jamaat-e-Islami leader to death, overruling the verdict of International Crimes Tribunal-2 that had awarded him a life sentence.
On the basis of the testimony of the lone survivor of the family, ICT-2 on February 5 handed Mollah a life sentence, which was later challenged by the government.
The six charges that were framed against Mollah include the one relating to the murder of Laskar and his family members.
Laskar's daughter, who was a newly-wed girl of 13 at the time of the incident, testified before the tribunal as the third prosecution witness in the war crimes case against Mollah.
In its verdict in the case, ICT-2 made mention of the testimony she gave in camera last year.
She said her father Laskar hurriedly returned to their house on Kalapani Lane in Mirpur-12 at dusk on March 26, 1971, and said Quader Mollah would kill him.
Laskar then closed the door, and said Mollah, Akhtar Gunda, his Bihari accomplices and the Pakistan army had been chasing him.
At the time, her mother, two-year-old brother and sisters were inside the house, said the witness, who is now 55.
She and her sister Amena hid themselves under the bed as asked by their father.
She then heard Mollah and the Biharis approaching the door. They shouted, “Son of a b****, open the door, otherwise we will throw bombs.”
As her father refused to open the door, they threw a bomb. When her mother, holding a kitchen knife, opened the door, they shot her, said the witness.
When Laskar tried to hold his wife, Mollah grabbed him by the collar, and said, “Son of a p**, will you not support the Awami League now? Will you not follow Bangabandhu? Will you not utter the slogan 'Joy Bangla'?”
Her father then begged Mollah and Akhtar Gunda to spare him, but Mollah dragged her father out of the room. Mollah's accomplices slit the throats of her mother and two sisters -- Khodeja and Taslima -- with a machete.
When her two-year-old brother Babu started crying, they killed the boy hitting him against the ground, she said.
Hearing Babu's cry, her sister Amena began wailing. They then dragged Amena from under the bed and tortured her to death, she said.
They also dragged her (the witness) from under the bed. She lost consciousness as they hit her with a sharp object.
When she regained consciousness, she felt severe pain in the abdomen, and found her clothes torn.
She somehow managed to walk to a house at Fakirbari, where she was given treatment. Her father-in-law went there the following day and took her to his house, said the witness.
She later identified Quader Mollah in the court, said ICT-2 in its judgment.
In yesterday's verdict, the Supreme Court said, “He [Mollah] is sentenced to death by a majority of 4:1 in respect of charge no 6. He [will] be hanged till death.”
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