Quashem keeps mum

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quashem Ali tactically avoided answering most of the questions the interrogators asked him about his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity in 1971.
The investigators were quizzing him during his second day of interrogation at a “safe house” in Dhanmondi in the capital yesterday.
The investigators also asked questions about his appointing of lobbyists abroad for a campaign against his trial.
Quashem refrained from answering anything, an investigator requesting anonymity told The Daily Star.
The investigator said the Jamaat leader told them that he knew several people who had committed crimes against humanity in 1971 and had become well-established after 1980.
Nurul Islam, the investigation officer probing Quashem's alleged crimes, however, said they got important information from Quashem about issues involving him.
He refused to disclose anything saying that the International Crimes Tribunal Act, 1973, under which the crimes against humanity are being tried, does not permit them to do so.
Nurul said they have not decided yet whether they would ask the International Crimes Tribunal-1 for permission to interrogate Quashem more.
He claimed that the Jamaat leader yesterday extended cooperation to them during interrogation.
Quashem's counsel Tajul Islam said his client was taken to the “safe house” for quizzing in the morning as per the Tribunal-1's wish.
On September 15, the investigation officers had quizzed Quashem, he said.
The Tribunal-1 on October 8 allowed the investigation officers to interrogate him one more day at the same place.
The government has provided the tribunal a house, which is called the “safe house” in Dhanmondi to interrogate suspects.