War crimes evidence found against 13 of Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Patuakhali
International Crimes Tribunal's investigation agency yesterday said to have found evidence of crimes allegedly committed by 13 persons in their respective Mymensingh, Jamalpur and Patuakhali localities during the 1971 Liberation War.
“Involved” with anti-liberation organisations Razakar Bahini, Al-Badr Bahini and Peace Committee, they “committed” murders, abductions, confinements, tortures, arsons and lootings, investigators told journalists at its Dhanmondi office.
Investigators say they would hand over documents, including the probe report, to the chief prosecutor's office today. If prosecutors are satisfied with those during scrutiny, they will press formal charges for initiating a trial, they said.
Now in jail, Esahaq Shikder, 83, Abdul Goni Hawlader, 72, Md Awal alias Awal Moulavi, 69, Abdus Sattar Pyada, 65, and Solaiman Mridha, 86, of Patuakhali sadar upazila, are accused in one case.
Rezaul Hauqe alias Akkas Moulvi, 65, and Badaruzzaman alias Chand Kazi, 65, are the accused from Mymensingh's Muktagachha upazila.
ABM Yunus Ali, 65, his brother AKM Yusuf Ali alias Yusuf Alam, 60, Omar Faruk alias Omar Ali, 70, Nasiruddin alias Kalu, 64, AKM Belayet Hossain, 64, and Ismali Hossain, 65, are from Jamalpur sadar upazila.
Rezaul, Yunus, Yusuf and Omar are now in jail while the rest on the run.
PATUAKHALI CASE
The agency's coordinator, Abdul Hannan Khan, said Esahaq was a member of Patuakhali Peace committee while the four others were members of Razakar Bahini.
On May 4, they, along with a group of Pakistani army men, killed 15 people of Itbaria village, torched and looted 21 houses and abducted six children and 15 women, whom they confined to Patuakhali Circuit House and raped for 10 days, he said.
On falling sick, the victims were sent back, said Hannan, adding that 51 people have been cited as probable witnesses.
MYMENSINGH AND JAMALPUR CASE
The agency's co-coordinator Sanaul Huq said Badruzzaman was a local Razakar commander while the seven others were engaged with Al-Badr Bahini. They were involved in at least eight incidents of crimes in Muktagachha and Jamalpur sadar upazila, he said.
The incidents concern the killing of three people of Malatipur Pathalia village on May 13 after torture, of five cobblers from Chechua Kurigram on June 27, of class VIII student Ahmmad Ali of Subarnakhila village on August 5 for chanting the Joy Bangla slogan, of seven people of Kejaikanda Konagaon on August 5, of Azizur Rahman on November 20 for assisting freedom fighters and of doctor Anil Kumar Singha on November 26.
The others involve the brutal torture on two freedom fighters, who were never found, on November 12 and torture on one Abdul Latif, a freedom fighter's brother, and torching of his house on November 12.
They have citied 49 people as probable witnesses, he added.