A prosecution witness yesterday narrated how war crimes accused fugitive Syed Hasan Ali shot dead her father-in-law and a man from a neighbouring village and had the bodies buried with death threats while Razakars accompanying him desecrated pictures of Hindu deities at Araiura village of Kishoreganj during the Liberation War on October 8, 1971.

During the attack on their house by Razakars, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani occupation army, one introduced himself as “Hasan Daroga”, the razakar commander of Tarail Thana, said the septuagenarian, Rekha Rani Ghosh.

“Razakar Hasan was wearing a khaki dress and had a white tupi (cap). He had a sharp-pointed beard. He was restless,” she told International Crimes Tribunal-1.

The Razakars caught her father-in-law Kamini Kumar Ghosh, husband Nripendra Ranjan Ghosh and two sisters-in-law hiding inside and brought them to the open yard, added Rekha.

“There were portraits of many goddesses in our room. Hasan Razakar ordered other Razakars to bring the portraits down (from the walls)...Razakars threw the portraits before my father-in-law and tread on those.

“Hasan Daroga repeatedly asked my father-in-law to urinate on those portraits but he did not do it. Hasan Daroga later demanded money from my father-in-law but he refused to give any,” said Rekha.

Razakars then looted rice, money, gold ornaments and five cows, she added.

On Hasan's instruction, five to six Razakars brought Jibon Thakur from a neighbouring Chikni village and made to stand with Kamini six to seven feet away from the house, said Rekha.

“All the Razakars gathered there after Hasan Daroga blew a whistle. Hasan Daroga shot dead my father-in-law and Jibon one after another,” she said.

“You can not cremate your father-in-law. You will bury him. If you do not become Muslims then your family line will be exterminated,” said the witness quoting the war crimes accused.

After recording the testimony, the tribunal adjourned proceedings until today. Hasan is facing six charges of crimes against humanity and genocide.