A captive freedom fighter prosecution witness on Sunday told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 that the Pakistan occupation army and members of Al Badr had gunned down his father at the behest of Matiur Rahman Nizami during the 1971 Liberation War.
“My father was picked up from his house and he was gunned down after being tortured on the streets at the behest of Nizami, then Al Badr chief,” recalled Abdus Selim Latif while giving deposition as PW-14.
“In the early hours of December 3, 1971, Pakistan occupation army in association with the members of Al Badr swooped on our village Brishalikha, in Bera thana of Pabna and torched many houses,” said Latif.
“My father Sohrab Ali Pramanik was killed as he declined to disclose my whereabouts as a freedom fighter,” he added.
Latif said that during the Liberation war he used to carry out operation at the behest of ex-MNA Abdul Latif Mirza. On August 15, 1971 while on way to recce Bera police station, he and his cousin Alauddin were captured by members of Razakar and Al Badr, the followers of Nizami, at the LSD launch ghat. Later, they were sent to Nagarbari Ghat makeshift army and Al Badr camp.
“We were shifted to a separate ferry where I found 9-10 persons with the same predicament like us with their hands tied around the back,” the PW said, adding: “I saw Nizami talking to an army officer.”
“After 8 pm, we were sent to another ferry for interrogation where we had been severely tortured for several hours with burning cigarettes pressed on our back,” he said.
While narrating the gravity of torture with burning cigarettes, PW Latif was overcome by emotion. “The persecutor army captain used my open back as ashtray frequently without any qualm,” he said weeping unashamedly in the witness box.
Opening his back, Latif told the tribunal: “I still carry the scar of burning cigarette wounds on my back.”
He said that at midnight, he was thrown into the waters of Jamuna with brick-filled sacks slung over his two shoulders and his hands and legs tied with thin electric wire.
“However, I managed to save my life after long struggle in the Jamuna River,” recalled Latif.
PW-14 Latif will be cross-examined by the defence counsel on Monday.
Jamaat chief Nizami is being tried on charges of involvement in murders and torture of unarmed people along with hatching conspiracy, planning, incitement and complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War in collaboration with the Pakistan occupation army.
Also the president of Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971, Nizami faces 16 counts of charges based on 16 separate incidents of crimes against humanity, in which at least 600 unarmed people were killed and 31 women raped during the Liberation War.
Source: UNBConnect
