Mojaheed signed Razakar's ID card

A prosecution witness yesterday told the International Crimes Tribunal-2 that after the Liberation War, he had found a Razakar's identity card signed by war crimes accused Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.
Mahbub Kamal, a former student leader and the third prosecution witness in the war crimes case against the Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general, also said Mojaheed used to visit a Razakar camp at the city's Fakirerpool during the war.
“I think Razakars and Al-Badr men committed war crimes just like the Pakistani army did and in some cases their [Razakars and Al-Badr] crimes were more vicious,” said the 59-year-old journalist.
According to prosecution documents, Razakars and Al-Badr, two anti-liberation forces, collaborated with the Pakistan army in committing genocide, mass killings and other crimes against humanity during the war.
Earlier, Shahriar Kabir, eminent war crimes researcher and first prosecution witness in the case, told the tribunal that Razakars used to carry ID cards signed by the Jamaat-e-Islami leaders.
Mahbub also said Jamaat-e-Islami and its then student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha, the Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams gave all-out support to the Pakistani force believing in the united Pakistan ideology.
Ghulam Azam was the ameer of East Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami while Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed the president and secretary general of Chhatra Sangha during the war, said the witness.
He said Mojaheed became president of the student organisation later in 1971.
During his 40-minute testimony, Mahbub, an assistant editor of Bangla daily Jugantor, said he was a first-year student of Notre Dame College and literary secretary of the Fakirerpool regional unit of East Pakistan Chhatra League in 1971.
Mahbub said he lived in Fakirerpool during the war save the period from April 19 to June 29, when he went to Lalmonirhat.
Pakistan army committed massacres in Jagannath Hall, Rokeya Hall of Dhaka University, Rajarbagh Police Lines, Pilkhana, Tanti Bazar, and Shakhari Bazar on March 25 night and the Liberation War began, said Mahbub.
“The Pakistani army, who started coming [to the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh] in early March [1971], did not have any knowledge about our language and locations of places,” said Mahbub.
He said, “But members of Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Sangha and Razakars and Al-Badr men helped the Pakistani army get over their limitations.”
“I knew Mojaheed as a leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha,” said the witness. “There was a Razakar camp at the house of Firoz Member alias Firu Member at Garam Pani Lane, some 150-200 yards away from my house and Mojaheed Shaheb used to go to the camp.”
Razakars with “good performance” record used to be selected for Al-Badr in that camp, said the witness, adding, “Al-Badr was known as the killer force.”
“After the Liberation War, when we captured the Razakar camp and turned it into a freedom fighters' camp, we recovered many documents of Razakars from there,” said Mahbub.
“I lost the documents with the passage of time.”
He said one of his distant cousins named Mahsin Ali, now a Rajshahi University employee, had gone to their Dhaka home in 1971 looking for a job.
Mahsin was assigned to look after their house when Mahbub was in Lalmonirhat.
“We couldn't know that he [Mohsin] joined the Razakars,” said the witness, adding, “Mohsin fled the house after victory on December 16, 1971, without informing us.”
“Later, we found an ID card searching his belongings and from the identity card, we came to know that he [Mohsin] was a Razakar,” said Mahbub.
“The ID card was signed by Firu Member and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.”
Mahbub said they lost the card while moving from rented houses over the years.
After recording Mahbub's testimony, the three-member tribunal led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir with members Justice Obaidul Hassan and Judge M Shahinur Islam adjourned the case proceedings until October 8 when the witness will face cross-examination.
Earlier in the day, the same tribunal completed recording the cross-examination of Zahir Uddin Jalal, second prosecution witness in this case.
When yesterday's court proceedings began at 10:35am, defence counsel Munshi Ahsan Kabir alleged that Jalal had used “abusive” words against defence counsel Syed Mizanur Rahman on the court premises after the court proceedings on Monday.
Taking the matter into cognisance, the tribunal asked Jalal to apologise to the counsel as well as the court.
Jalal complied.