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Witness against Sayedee comes under attack

Critically injured while asleep

Staff Correspondent
A prosecution witness in the war crimes case against Jamaat leader Sayedee was hacked in Pirojpur early yesterday, within 40 days of the attack on the house of another.
Though justice seekers and campaigners of war crimes trial keep demanding a law for the protection of witnesses and victims, no such step has yet been taken by the government.
A number of prosecution witnesses reportedly received death threats in the last two years and recently, bombs were blasted near the residences of several prosecutors.
Mostafa Hawlader, 55, who testified against Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer Delawar Hossain Sayedee, came under attack around 2:30am yesterday when he was asleep in his room.
A man entered the house in Hoglabunia village after digging a
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hole from outside and started hacking Mostafa targeting the head. The sharp weapon pierced the left side of the forehead, family members say.
The perpetrator vanished from sight as locals came hearing screams of Mostafa's wife Hasina, reports our Pirojpur correspondent.
The injured was rushed to Pirojpur Sadar Hospital. After primary treatment there, he was sent to Khulna Medical College Hospital. Doctors at the hospital referred him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment.
Mostafa's wife Hasina holds the Jamaat-e-Islami responsible for the "planned" attack.
She said her husband often was intimidated by Jamaat-Shibir men in the area. The family received death threats time and again after her husband testified against Sayedee before the International Crimes Tribunal-1.
In his testimony on January 1 last year, Mostafa said he had seen Sayedee and other collaborators looting and burning a number of shops in Parerhat Bazar during the Liberation War.
Sayedee was sentenced to death on February 28.
On October 28, alleged Jamaat-Shibir men attacked the house of another prosecution witness, Mahabubul Alam Howlader, in the same upazila and vandalised every valuable he had. He escaped unhurt hiding in the attic.
"I have been living in extreme fear and
facing serious hardship. I cannot even go out to earn my living," Mahabubul, also a freedom fighter, told The Daily Star yesterday.
"I cannot send my children to school or to playground," he added. "The government has posted some policemen to protect me and my family, but it's not enough."
Prosecutor Rana Dasgupta said, "We have long been demanding victim and witness protection act. But the government didn't enact it." He added a law could have prevented such attacks.
Prof Muntasir Mamoon, vice-president of Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, which has been campaigning for war crimes trial since 1992, said, "We have long been demanding security for the people related with the trial specially witnesses.
"But we are tired now."
It is the responsibility of the government and the state to provide security to the prosecution witnesses, said Mamoon, himself a prosecution witness in the war crimes case against former Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam.
He feared further attack on witnesses and other people concerned as "Jamaat and its student wing Shibir have become desperate".
Five top Jamaat leaders have been convicted of crimes committed against humanity in 1971.
In the verdict against Ghulam, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 terms Jamaat-e-Islami a criminal organisation while investigation continues into the party's war crimes role in 1971.