FF also links Shakhawat to killing of villager
A freedom fighter yesterday testified that he had seen former Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP lawmaker Shakhawat Hossain shoot dead one Chadtulla Gazi of Chingra village in Jessore's Keshabpur upazila during the Liberation War in 1971.
Nur Uddin Morol, the third prosecution witness in the case against nine war crimes accused from Jessore including Shakhawat, told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 that Shakhawat and other Razakars had also tortured him in a Razakar camp.
Apart from Shakhawat, the witness implicated four other accused in the case -- Mujibur Rahman, Abdul Khaleq, Lutfar Morol, and Billal Hossain. He, however, did not mention names of four other accused in the case -- Kazi Ohidul Islam, Aziz Sardar, Aziz Sardar (2), and Ibrahim Hossain.
Of the nine men who face five charges, Shakhawat, Billal and Lutfar are now in jail and have pleaded not guilty. The rest are on the run.
Earlier, Gaziur Rahman and Fazlur Rahman Gazi, two sons of martyr Chadtulla, implicated all nine in the killing of his father, and said they heard from Nur Uddin Morol that Shakhawat shot their father dead. Nur Uddin, also of Chingra village, said he along with Chadtulla, went to India in the Bangla month Ashar to train and join the Liberation War, and he took part in the war under Sector-8. He and Chadtulla returned home on the 25th of Bangla month Ashwin to meet his parents.
On Ashwin 28, accused Shakhawat, Mujibur, Khaleq, Lutfar and Billal, and Akram Hossain along with 10 to 12 Razakars came to his house, picked him up, and took him to Chingra Razakar camp, where Razakars tortured him, the 73-year-old witness said.
He said on the same day, Razakars brought Chadtulla to the same camp where they tortured the two to know about their arms and fellow freedom fighters.
On the first day of Kartik, Shakhawat, accompanied by the other accused and Razakars, shot dead Chadtulla on the bank of the Kopotakkho river, said Nur Uddin. “I saw the incident from a window of the camp.”
Nur Uddin said he was released from the camp after giving a bond that he would not work against Pakistan.
The tribunal adjourned the proceeding until February 22 after defence counsels completed his cross-examination.
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