Convicted Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed Sunday filed an appeal with the Supreme Court challenging death penalty awarded to him for 1971 war crimes.
Five out of seven charges of wartime offences which were levelled against him were proved beyond doubt, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 announced as it handed the 65-year-old Jamaat secretary general capital punishment on July 17.
Advocate Tajul Islam and some other pro-Jamaat lawyers submitted a 95-page appeal along with documents comprising more than 3,000 pages in support of the appeal.
Mojaheed had led a “death squad”, named Al-Badr, that worked as an auxiliary force for the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.
He held superior responsibility in abetting, planning and facilitating the mass killings of the “best sons and daughters of the soil”.
Mojaheed was sentenced to death in three war crimes charges, imprisoned for life in one and sentenced to five years in prison in another.
In 1971, Mojaheed was a top leader of the Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
The Chhatra Sangha turned into Al-Badr, an armed outfit, according to the international crimes tribunal.
Mojaheed was also made a technocrat minister during the BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance government’s rule in 2001-2006.
DEATH IN 3 CHARGES
Eminent journalist Serajuddin Hossain became the target of the Jamaat and Al-Badr for his write-ups on the sufferings inflicted on unarmed civilians through the atrocities carried out by the collaborators of the Pakistani army.
On the night of December 10, 1971, seven to eight youths, wearing ski masks and armed with rifles, abducted Serajuddin at his house in the capital’s Chamelibagh.
The judges said it was quite evident that Al-Badr men had abducted Serajuddin. Being a leader of Al-Badr, Mojaheed, instead of preventing the crime, approved, endorsed, encouraged and provided moral support for the abduction of Serajuddin Hossain, who was later killed.
The charge concerning killings of intellectuals says during the Liberation War, the Pakistan army set up a camp at Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute, Dhaka, and members of the Razakar and Al-Badr forces used to receive their training there.
It was also known as a “torture camp”. Mojaheed used to visit the camp regularly with his Al-Badr co-leaders and with intent to annihilate the Bangalee population, and to design, plan and conspire with senior army officers of the camp.
It says following such conspiracy and planning, killings of intellectuals and professionals were carried out from December 10, 1971.
The judges in the verdict said Mojaheed was found to be “part of designing the plan and activities involving the commission of the mass killing of intellectuals”.
Mojaheed, who was in a “superior position of ICS [Chhatra Sangha], which transformed into Al-Badar, was aware of the consequences of his act and conduct that substantially encouraged, endorsed, approved, provided moral support to the Al-Badar men in committing the intellectuals’ killing”, the judges said.
It said Mojaheed’s acts, conduct, inflammatory and provocative speeches had substantial impact on the Al-Badr force in its carrying out of activities and operations between December 10 and 16, 1971.
Another charge, in which Mojaheed has been awarded death, says Mojaheed accompanied by his accomplices attacked the Hindu community of Bakchar village in Faridpur and tied up at least nine people on May 13, 1971.
Following his instructions, his accomplices killed all the civilians apprehended, raped a woman, and looted and burnt down the house of one Anil Saha.
He participated and substantially facilitated the commission of the crimes, the judges said.
LIFE IMRPISONMENT
On August 30, 1971, Mojaheed, accompanied by war crimes accused and now Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, went to the army camp at the old MP Hostel in Nakhalpara, Dhaka. He scolded Altaf Mahmud, and freedom fighters Jahir Uddin Jalal, Badi, Rumi, Jewel and Azad, who were detained there, read one of the charges.
Mojaheed had then told one army captain that before the proclamation of clemency by the president, the detainees would have to be killed. Mojaheed and his accomplices then killed the detainees after inflicting inhuman torture on them.
Nizami too is facing a war crimes charge in connection with the killing of the freedom fighters.
Regarding the charge, the verdict said Mojaheed’s advice to liquidate them was “concerned with the commission” of the killing. “He is held to have participated in the actual commission of the offence of the killing of numerous unarmed civilians, most of whom were valiant and brave guerrilla fighters.”
5-YEAR IMPRISONMENT
In the first week of June, 1971, Razakars apprehended Ranjit Nath in Faridpur and brought him before Pakistani army Major Akram at Faridpur Old Circuit House, where Mojaheed was present, read one of the charges.
Getting a signal from Mojaheed, after his talk with the major, some Razakars and non-Bangalees took Ranjit to the house of Abdur Rashid. Ranjit was confined to the house and tortured. He, however, managed to escape later.
Referring to Ranjit’s testimony, the judgment said the very utterance “Isko Hatao” [take him away] by accused Mojaheed at the army camp was not an “innocent utterance” but rather was issuing an “order” or “instruction”.
“If the utterance was really an innocent one, the victim would have been released at once from the camp. But Mujaheed’s [Mojaheed’s] cohorts on getting the signal brought the victim out of the camp, inflicted torture and kept him confined,” the judges said.
ACQUITTED IN 2 CHARGES
Of the two charges the prosecution had failed to prove, one claimed that Mojaheed, accompanied by eight to ten non-Bangalees and Pakistani army men, attacked the Hindu-dominated Baidyadangi, Majhidangi and Baladangi villages in mid-May 1971.
Around 60 Hindus were killed and their houses were burnt down.
The court yesterday said it had been proved that a mass killing had taken place but the prosecution failed to prove that Mojaheed accompanied the attackers.
The other charge claimed that on July 26, 1971, Razakars abducted Abu Yusuf from Alfadanga in Faridpur and brought him to the army camp at Faridpur stadium.
The same day, Mojaheed went to the camp and said something to a Pakistani army major, which caused Yusuf to be tortured severely, the charge added.
The court yesterday said the prosecution had failed to prove this charge as well.
Source: The Daily Star