An eyewitness on Monday said his father was killed by Pakistan occupation army during the Liberation War at the behest of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, now a BNP MP.
“The brutal incident had taken place at our Rauzan village home in Chittagong district on April 14 in 1971,” recalled Paritosh Kumar Palit, a retired teacher of Rangunia Radhanagar RABM High School, while making deposition before the International Crimes Tribunal-1 as prosecution witness-28.
The PW said that his father, Satish Chandra Palit, used to earn his livelihood as a writer at the local Police Station helping people in preparing GD and First Information Report (FIR).
He told the tribunal that during the growing political unrest in March 1971 when the Muslim League activists started looting and torching the houses of the Hindu community followed by rape of women, his father asked him to leave the village home along with the family and take shelter at a safe place.
“Accordingly, I along with my family left the house on April 10 or 11 and took shelter at my paternal uncle’s house at Biswas Para, three km off our Rauzan Palit Para home,” said Paritosh.
On receiving the news of the killing of Nutan Chandra Singh, principal of Kundeshwari Ousadhalaya on April 13 in 1971, the PW said he rushed the following day to his Palit Para home to see the condition of his father.
“After meeting my father, I tried to persuade him to leave home for safety, but he refused,” Paritosh said.
“Meanwhile, I noticed that Salauddin Quader along with occupation Punjabi solders had reached our house. Being afraid, I left the place hurriedly and hid in a nearby bush to keep watch on the happenings,” he said.
The PW-28 said that later he also had noticed from his hiding place that Salaudin Quader took position under a tree near a pond while the Punjabi soldiers engaged in altercation with his father on the courtyard of their house.
“At one stage of the altercation, Salauddin Quader ordered the soldiers to shoot my father calling him a dangerous man,” he recalled.
Hearing the order of Salauddin Quader, the PW said the soldiers had asked my father to get back into the house.
“As my father started to move towards the main door of the house, the soldiers fired two rounds of gunshots targeting his head and my father instantly fell on the ground,” he said
“Shortly after the soldiers brought some quilts from the house and wrapped the body of my father,” Paritosh said, adding that the soldiers then set fire to the body spraying gun powder on it before they had left the scene.
“Later, I informed the tragic killing of my father to my relatives after reaching the house of my paternal uncle at Biswas Para,” he said.
The PW also told the tribunal that a day after the incident, his immediate elder brother Priyotosh Palit brought back some charred remains including bones of his father.
“Considering the extremely dangerous situation, I along with my family then left the country and had taken shelter in India as refugee till Bangladesh’s independence.
Before concluding his deposition, Paritosh identified accused Salauddin Quader in the dock.
His deposition over, the PW was cross-examined by Ahsanul Huq Hena, the senior defence counsel for the BNP stalwart. The cross examination remained inconclusive.
Source: UNB Connect