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Maj Zia wanted SQ Chy dead

2 freedom fighters tell int'l crimes tribunal

Staff Correspondent
During the Liberation War, Maj Ziaur Rahman commissioned the killing of 22 “collaborators”, including Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and his father, said two freedom fighters at International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday.
Maj Zia also designated a team to execute the killings, the two said.
Salahuddin was in the dock during their depositions.
The witnesses told the tribunal that they conducted an operation together to kill Salahuddin as he had been “killing and torturing people" with the help of the Pakistan army and its collaborators, the Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakars.
Alam, 63 and Absar, 61,
Freedom fighters SM Mahbub-Ul-Alam and Qazi Mohammad Nurul Absar revealed this information before the tribunal while testifying against Salahuddin in the case filed in connection with his crimes against humanity.
said they along with two other freedom fighters launched an attack on Salahuddin in September 1971, in Chittagong while Salahuddin was coming out of a house in his car.
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The two witnesses said they later heard from different sources that Salahuddin had sustained serious injuries while his driver was killed in the attack.
Major Zia was a sector commander and chief of the Z-force during the Liberation War. He later became president of Bangladesh and founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in 1978.
Salahuddin joined the BNP in the 1990s and is now a standing committee member of the party.
Both prosecution witnesses yesterday gave a detailed description of their operation against Salahuddin.
They also described how student leader Mahbubul Alam was tortured to death at Salahuddin’s Good's Hill home in Chittagong during the LiberationWar.
"After completion of my training Major Zia made me the commander of our 16-member team and handed over a hit list. The first name on the list was that of Fazlul Quader Chowdhury while the second one was of his son Salahuddin,” said SM Mahbub-Ul-Alam.
Alam was the 11th prosecution witness in the case.
Alam, a businessman, said as the Pakistani army began mass killings and occupied half of Chittagong city on March 25, 1971, he went to Ramgar and met Major Zia.
“As per Major Zia's directive, I went to TYipura in India for training. After completion of my training, he, then sector commander, directed us to make a 16-member team of people who knew Chittagong town well,” he added.
The freedom fighter said the name of the group was Bravo Company and “its number was eight”.
"Major Zia handed over to us a hit list that included the names of Fazlul, Salahuddin, Didar Mia, a Muslim League leader, and Sharafat Ullah. He also mentioned some places for operations to be conducted and gave us weapons and some money,” he added.
Alam said after returning to Chittagong town they heard that the Pakistani army and its collaborator forces, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and the Razakars, led by Salahuddin, were "massacring" people in Chittagong and in adjacent areas.
“A son of one Mozaffar told me that the Pakistan army led by Salahuddin had abducted Mozaffar and his brother whose locations were not known since then,” he added.
"We also heard that people were brought to Good's Hill to be tortured and made to disappear under the leadership of Salahuddin,” he continued.
Quoting one of his comrades, he said one Mahbub Alam was also murdered after “he was skinned alive” at Good's Hill.
The freedom fighter said those who were critically injured after torture were sent to the home of doctor Chhami Uddin and those whose conditions were even worse were made to go missing.
He said the sector commander's headquarters was mounting pressure on them to do something about Salahuddin.
“We planned to conduct an operation at the doctor's home as we came to know that Salahuddin would join a family programme there. As per our plan, we took up positions with firearms in front of the house around 6:30pm on September 20,” he added.
"When Salahuddin came out of the house, after staying there for around one hour, Aziz Uddin, son of Chhami, gave us the signal with a torch according to plan,” he added.
"Getting the signal we, the four-member team, attacked the car. Fazlul Haque sprayed the car with bullets from his sten gun while Sourendra Nath Sen charged grenades and I opened fire with my revolver," he added.
He said, "We left the place after the operation and later heard that Salahuddin had been crucially injured and his driver killed in the operation.”
Earlier in the day, Nurul Absar, the 10th witness, gave his statement before the tribunal.
Absar said Mahbub Alam, former Bangladesh Student Union president of Rangunia College unit, was his friend and they had planned together to protest the “massacres" being carried out by non-Bangalee people and their Pakistani supporters in Chittagong.
He said Mahbub was living at Khatunganj in Chittagong but he had been incommunicado since June-July 1971.
“Later, I heard that a group of people, including Salahuddin, Yousuf Khan, Hamid til Quader Chowdhury alias Khoka, Maksud and Ziauddin had kidnapped Mahbub from Khatunganj and tortured him at Good's Hill," he added.
“I heard that there was no skin left on Mahbub’s body as they forced him to lie on a wooden plank bristling with nails and put another plank on him and pressed it down,” he said.
Introducing himself as an organiser of the Liberation War, Absar, now an employee of a private firm, said they decided to kill Salahuddin as they heard that he regularly tortured freedom fighters at his Good's Hill home.
A group of freedom fighters also returned from India with the list at the time.
“We also came to know that Salahuddin sent critically injured people to Chhami Uddin's home secretly to know whether they would survive. Aziz Uddin, son of Chhami Uddin, was our friend. As he heard that freedom fighters planned to kill his father he sought security for his family from me," he added.
“I told him that if he informed us when Salahuddin would join their family programme, I would help him. At the end of September, he informed me that Salahuddin would be part of a family programme,” he added.
“Getting the information I informed my commander, SM Mahbub-Ul-Alam, and we designed our plan to conduct an operation with two others,” he added.
“We took up position in front of Chhami Uddin's home after Maghrib prayers. As per our plan, I took up position on the road and informed three others about the arrival of Salahuddin with a Pakistani army officer. I heard the sound of the attack around 8:30pm and left the place immediately,” he added.
He said Aziz told them that Salahuddin drove the car himself. That is why the firing was aimed at the dri ver seat.
“We learnt from newspapers the next day that Salahuddin had received splinter grenade injuries in his leg while his driver was killed in the operation. We also heard that Salahuddin went abroad after the operation," he added.
Defence counsels will cross-examine Nurul Absar today and SM Mahbub-Ul-Alam tomorrow.
Salahuddin was produced in court yesterday. He is facing 23 specific charges of crimes against humanity he allegedly committed during the LiberationWar.
He is among four Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP leaders facing similar charges at Tribunal-1, the first of two courts formed to deal with such crimes.
Meanwhile, International Crimes Tribunal-2 yesterday recorded the cross examination of Abdul Momen, the first prosecution witness in the war crimes case against former BNP lawmaker Abdul Alim.
Defence counsels will resume the cross-examination today, as the court did not go into session after lunch yesterday.
The court did not go into session as the father of Justice Obaidul Hassan, a member ofTribunal-2, had died.
Witness Momen, a former student leader, testified before the tribunal on August 6. He had said that the former BNP lawmaker had ordered the killing of nine Hindus of Khetlal upazila of Joypurhat duringthe LiberationWar.
On June 11, the tribunal framed 17 charges of war crimes against Alim, which include genocide, murder of Bangalee civilians, and burying people alive during the war.