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Detained, tortured for 16 days

War crimes witness testifies against Mir Quasem

Staff Correspondent
A prosecution witness yesterday testified that Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali along with others had tortured him at an Al-Badr camp in Chittagong during the Liberation War in 1971.
Iskandar Alam Chowdhury, a freedom fighter from Chittagong who was detained at the camp for 16 days, said Quasem and others had tortured him as he denied giving information about the war.
"At one stage, Mir Quasem Ali said I would be killed and my body would be dumped into the Karnaphuli river if I didn't give information about freedom fighters’ whereabouts," Iskandar, the eighth prosecution witness in the war crimes case against Quasem, told the International Crimes Tribunal-2.
Quasem, a member of Jamaat's central executive committee, is facing 14 charges of crimes against humanity committed in Chittagong during the nine-month-long war.
During his 47-minute testimony, Iskandar said he had been working at Karachi as a ground engineer in Pakistani Air Force in 1971 and fled from his workplace in the first week of November and went to Chittagong through Dhaka.
The 66-year-old witness added his elder brother Shamsul Alam Chowdhury was one of the organisers of the Liberation War. As per his brother's directives he went to the war under the leadership of freedom fighter Syed Mohammad Amran, he said.
Around 4:00am on November 30, Al-Badr men and some Pakistani army personnel besieged their house and
detained him and three of his nephews, said Iskandar, adding, they were taken to NMC Model High School.
Iskandar said he had seen two to three empty trucks and several other detainees there. Besides, several other detainees including Syed Mohammad Amran were also brought there from Nuruzzaman Najirbari area, he added.
“The detainees including me were taken to the Al-Badr torture camp, which was set up at Dalim Hotel, on the trucks and kept us in a groundfloorroom," headded.
Amran, who was a group commander of Bangladesh Liberation Force (BLF), earlier gave testimony as the first prosecution witness in the case.
Amran said he was also picked up by Al-Badr and Pakistani army in the early hours of November 30 and was taken to an Al-Badr torture camp controlled by Quasem.
Iskandar said after a day or two, he was blindfolded and taken to the first floor of the camp where he endured severe torture.
"At one stage, one of the torturers unfolded my eyes and I saw Mir Quasem Ali and another one before me," said Iskandar.
"Mir Quasem Ali enquired about other freedom fighters. As I didn't give any information, he along with others present there started torturing me/ he added.
Locals later rescued the witness along with other detainees from the camp in the morning of December 16, the day Bangladesh achieved victory, said Iskandar.
After his testimony, Quasem's counsel Mizanul Islam completed cross-examining him before the tribunal had adjourned the proceeding until today.