A prosecution witness on Wednesday said Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, now a BNP MP, was seen in a car waiting for picking up his fupa, the husband of his father’s sister, during an operation led by Pakistan occupation army along with Razakars in 1971.
“On May 20, 1971, we came to know our fupa M Hanif was abducted by the occupation army from his Kartadighir Patherhat village home in Raozan of Chittagong,” recalled M Nazim Uddin, while making deposition before the International Crimes Tribunal-1 as PW-30.
PW Nizam Uddin said later Sona Mia Saudagor, father of Hanif, had sent one lady, Nazma Begum, to ‘Goods Hill’, the ancestral house of Salauddin Quader in the port city of Chittagong, to rescue abducted Hanif. “She couldn’t rescue him but came back witnessing the acts of torture there,” he said.
The PW will be cross-examined on Thursday by the defence counsel.
Earlier, another PW-29, Subal, testified against detained Salauddin
Quader, being tried on charges of crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
While narrating the deposition, Subal said during the Liberation War their house at Maddha Gahira in Rauzan of Chittagong came under the army attack hours before they had left the house.
“While on way to flee, I along with family heard gunshots. It seemed to me that the firings come from my house,” said Subal. “Being afraid we went into hiding in nearby hedges.”
Subal said at one stage his father asked him to visit the house to see what happened there. “In compliance with my father’s request, I returned to my house and saw six bullet-riddled bodies lying on its courtyard,” said Subal.
The PW further said, “Of them, I found four dead and two others alive calling in piteous voice. Then I returned to my father leaving the bullet-hit bodies and didn’t turn up my home till Bangladesh’s independence.”
“After the independence, I came to know one Kazi Farid buried the four bodies beside the bank of our pond.”
After his deposition, defence counsel Ahsanul Huq Hena cross-examined Subal.
During the cross-examinations, PW Subal said the place of occurrence is known as Napitpara where about 150 people used to live during the Liberation War.
Replying to defence questions, Subal said the firing of guns at their house continued for 10 minutes and he visited it an hour after the horrendous incident.
In response to a defence suggestion, the PW said: “It’s not true they left the country for India long before the Liberation War.”
Source: UNB Connect
