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A case for justice stalled for six yrs

ZAYADUL AHSAN
Six years after the sister of a slain intellectual sought justice to the murder of her brother on December 14, 1971, the case got lost at the law ministry on the question of whether the killers should be tried in the war crimes tribunal or a special court.
Prof. Farida Banu, sister of Prof. Gias Uddin, one of the eight Dhaka University teachers killed by the infamous AlBadr and Razakar, filed the case on September 24, 1997.
Had the case been put on trial, it would have opened a new chapter of a book that has
never been flipped through by a country born out of blood and fire and sacrifice of three million.
But the book was closed once again after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told the home ministry that the case need to be probed under the International War Crimes Act.
The home ministry sent a file to the law ministry for its opinion in January 2000. Noone knows, or rather cares, about the file any more.
"We did a primary investigation and sent a file with our observations to the home ministry," Munshi Atiqur Rahman, investigation officer of the case, told The Daily Star last night. "The file was sent to the law ministry. I don't know what happened to it."
Prof. Farida accused two AlBadr members -- Chowdhury Mainuddin and Ashrafuzzaman, now living in London -- for the killing of her brother.
The CID conducted an intensive probe during which it talked to the families of the martyred teachers of Dhaka University, other teachers and students of that time and watched the sensational British Channel 4 programme, War Crimes File, to get cues on more links.
The CID also sought Interpol's help and the British government assured it of help in the investigation.
The CID made 40 persons as witnesses to the case.
According to the witnesses, Chowdhury Mainuddin, who then worked at The Pakistan Observer, and Ashrafuzzaman, a student of
Dhaka University, picked up eight university teachers -- Dr Murtaza, Dr Fayezul Mohi, Dr Abul Khayer, Prof. Rashidul Hasan , Prof. Anwar Pasa, Prof. Serajul Haq, Dr Santosh Bhattacharya and Dr. Gias Uddin -on December 14.
Mainuddin and Ashrafuzzaman, armed with rifles, came to the campus by a East Pakistan Road Transport Corporation bus and took the teachers to an unspecified place. Their mutilated bodies were found on January 5 at Mirpur killing field.
While the investigation was going on, a former top criminal lawyer late Serajul Haque said "a fruitful result cannot be expected if the trial of the case is conducted under the existing law of the land". Therefore, the trial of the case should be conducted under the International War Crimes Act, he felt.
Under the act, a complaint may be lodged or trial may be conducted regarding all crimes against humanity such as murder, exter-