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He said he and his band of freedom fighters could not prevent the attack as they were not armed.
On September 4, the 67-year-old witness testified that a group of Pakistani army troops led by Joypurhat Shanti Committee leader Abdul Alim and Panchbibi Shanti Committee leader Joyber attacked Panchbibi from the east.
They looted and torched homes, and conducted mass killing there, he had said.
The two-member tribunal headed by its Chairman Justice ATM Fazle Kabir with member Judge M Shahinur Islam recorded the cross-examination before adjourning the case proceedings until today.
The other member of the tribunal was absent yesterday.
Defence counsel AEM Khalilur Rahman asked over 80 questions but the tribunal adjourned the case proceedings after lunch as counsel Khalilur felt unwell.
When the defence counsel asked several questions about the relatives of the witness and location of places in the district, the tribunal intervened.
“This is not the proper way of cross-examination. I cannot understand your way of cross-examination. We did not get a single suggestion from you with which the witness disagreed,” said Justice Fazle Kabir.
“Why are you asking questions about such relationships of the witness? Is it relevant to the charges lagainst Alim]?” added the chairman.
Khalilur said the witness in his testimony said people were tortured at the army camp at Senior Madrasa in the district and that was why he was asking questions about its location.
Torture in army camp during the Liberation War is “matter of common knowledge", said Judge Shahinur Islam, adding that he should ask questions attacking the charges against his client.
“What is the relevance [between the charges] and what you are asking?” asked the judge.
Prosecutor Rana Dasgupta then alleged that the defence counsel was asking such questions “to waste time” and “to harass the witness.”
The defence counsel then asked some other questions until 1:00pm.
On June 11, the tribunal framed 17 specific charges of crimes against humanity against the former BNP minister, which included genocide, murder of Bangalee civilians, and burying people alive during the war.
Meanwhile at Tribunal-1, a defence witness for war crimes accused Delawar Hossain Sayedee during cross-examination failed to recall basic information about the Chhatra League, of which he claimed to have been a member of in the 1960s.
Prosecution yesterday
completed cross-examining witness Khashrul Alam, who testified before the tribunal on September 16.
Prosecutor Syed Haidar Ali asked Khashrul how he had become a member of the Chhatra League, then the student wing of the Awami League.
Seemingly unprepared, Khashrul said he had been involved in Chhatra League in 1966 or 1967 and following directives of the organisation's leaders, he joined the Liberation War.
Haidar then told the witness that the question was simple and Khashrul should have given a specific answer.
Of his own accord, tribunal Chairman Justice Md Nizamul Huq repeated the question.
Taking some time, the witness said he had signed on a "Wadapotro” (a paper of commitment) to the organisation. But Khashrul, in reply to another question, said he could not
remember what was on the “Wadapotro”.
The witness also said he was a member of the Chhatra League in 1966 or 1967 and became an activist in his college days. Haidar then asked what the slogan of the Chhatra League was then.
“To establish peace ”, Khashrul mumbled and struggled to answer.
The tribunal again helped the witness saying that if he could not remember he could say so.
The witness then simply answered, “I cannot remember it now.”
Haidar then made suggestions to the witness that he was not a member of the Chhatra League and there was no such "Wadapotro”.
Kharshrul said it was not true.
The witness said he was in Saudi Arabia for 20 years, from 1985 to 2004.
The prosecutor then made suggestions that Khashrul went to Saudi
Arabia with financial aid from the Jamaat and that he was living on Jamaat's help and that was why he testified for Jamaat leader Sayedee.
"It's not true,” said Khashrul.
Sayedee, facing 20 specific charges of crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War in 1971, was present at the tribunal.
The tribunal adjourned the proceedings of the case until today.
Meanwhile, in the case against former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam, theTHbunal-l yesterday recorded the exhibits and clippings of newspapers of 17 seizure lists.
The tribunal fixed today for recording the remaining items on a seizure list.
Ghulam Azam, facing five charges based on 60 acts of crime against humanity during the LiberationWar, was brought before the tribunal yesterday.