Another man implicates Shakhawat in boy killing

A prosecution witness yesterday testified that former Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP lawmaker Shakhawat Hossain shot a boy dead in Jessore's Keshabpur upazila during the Liberation War in 1971.

Kamal Sarder said he learnt about the killing from his uncle Kazi Abdul Aziz.

Kamal, of Chingra village in the upazila, is the ninth prosecution witness in a case against nine Jessore men including Shakhawat and second witness to implicate Shakhawat in the killing of the boy.

Earlier, his uncle Aziz himself testified about the murder as fifth prosecution witness. He said the boy was an informer of freedom fighters.

Aziz also told the International Crimes Tribuanl-1 that he himself was tortured by Shakhawat's aides at the time of the killing.

Meanwhile, the eighth prosecution witness, Hasan Ali Sheikh, also gave his testimony yesterday, linking four of the accused to the abduction of Miran Sheikh, who had joined the war and used to supply information to the freedom fighters.

Hasan, 91, said he had seen accused Abdul Khaleq, Ibrahim Hossain, Abdul Aziz, and Abdul Aziz (2) taking away Miran from near his home in Bangla month of Ashwin to Chingra Razakar camp.

Earlier, Miran Sheikh, also the sixth prosecution witness, said Shakhawat himself and his accomplices confined and tortured him at a Razakar camp in Jessore during the war.

The four other accused are Mujibur Rahman, Lutfar Morol, Billal Hossain and Kazi Ohidul Islam.

The nine face five charges. Of them, Shakhawat, Billal and Lutfar are now in jail and have pleaded not guilty. The rest are on the run.

Sixty-three-year-old witness Kamal said a Razakar camp was set up at Chingra Bazar on the 15th of Bangla month of Jaistha and Shakhawat was the commander of the camp.

On the 28th of Ashwin, when he had gone to Chingra Bazar to buy something, he heard gunshots, he said.

Kamal said when he went towards the western side of the bazar, he saw accused Shakhawat, Abdul Aziz (son of Ful Sarder), Abdul Aziz (son of Ahmed Sarder), and Lutfar and others were marching towards the eastern side of the bazar and found the body of a child near the ferryghat besides the bazar.

Three days later, when he went to Chingra Bazar again, his uncle Aziz said Shakhawat killed the boy and Razakars beat him when he refused to hold the boy's hands before Shakhawat shot him. Later his uncle left the body near the ferryghat, Kamal said.

Kamal's uncle also said the name of the victim was Malek and he was from Hijaldanga village.

Accused Shakhawat and Lutfar were produced before the court yesterday. Another accused, Billal, was not produced as he fell sick. Kamal identified Shakhawat but not the other accused.

The two-member tribunal led by Justice Md Shahinur Islam adjourned the proceeding until March 15 after defence counsels completed cross-examinations of the two witnesses.