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Wartime Killing

Witness testifies against Subhan

Staff Correspondent
An eyewitness yesterday testified that the Pakistani army shot his paternal uncle dead at his house in Pabna following lamaat-e-Islami leader Abdus Subhan's order during the Liberation War. Abdur Rahman Sarder, nephew of martyred Mohammad Ali Sarder of Sahapur village in Ishwardi, told International Crimes Tribunal-2 that his neighbour, Rajab Ali Biswas, was also killed on instructions from Subhan.
Rahman, the 12th prosecution witness in Subhan's case, gave a heart-wrenching description of the atrocities committed in their village on May 2, 1971 by the Pakistan army on provocation by Subhan.
Earlier, Jahanara Begum, wife of martyred freedom fighter Rajab Ali, said the Pakistan army had killed her husband and one of his friends before her very eyes after Subhan had identified the two on the day.
The Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer faces nine charges, including genocide, committed in Pabna during the nine-month-long war. Subhan, however, pleaded not guilty before the court.
Rahman, the 66-year-old day
labourer, said when he heard gunshots on the morning of May 2, 1971, he asked his family members to take shelter in safer places. But he and his uncle, Mohammad Ali, stayed back in their home.
He later went to a nearby road to observe the situation and found that the house of Principal Tayab Ali was burning. As he heard the sounds of two more gunshots from a nearby place, he hid himself inside a bamboo bush, the witness said.
“From that place, I saw Moulana Subhan, along with 20 to 25 Pakistani army men and five to six plainclothes men, approaching our home," he told the tribunal.
"Subhan pointed at my uncle, Mohammad Ali Sarder, and said, 'He is an Awami League man. We should not let him live. Finish him'," Rahman said, adding: "Upon orders from Subhan, the Pakistani army killed my uncle firing two shots."
After that Subhan's accomplices entered their houses and looted valuables before burning them, he said, adding that Subhan and his accomplices later entered the village and burned several other houses.
Rahman went on, around 1:00pm, he came out from the hideout and found the dead body of Mohammad Ali lying on the ground.
Fie later came to know from another of his uncles, Baku! Sarder, that their neighbours - Rajab Ali and Shamsul Haque, a friend of Rajab, - had also been killed.
The bodies of Rajab and Shamsul were found around 25 to 30 yards away from his uncle's body, Rahman said, adding: "Rajab Ali's wife [Jahanara Begum] had told me that Subhan Moulana ordered her husband's killing."
Rahman further said he had heard that his neighbours Chand Ali Pramanik, Akhter Pramanik, Anar
Pramanik and Hamezuddin had also been killed and he also saw their bodies.
"I heard that the Pakistan army, under the leadership of Subhan Moulana, set fire to the house of Chand Ali," he said, adding that he also saw the body of Rahim Pramanik at his house.
"I saw 10 to 12 burnt houses. I also heard that the Pakistani soldiers, who had accompanied Subhan Moulana, had torched the houses," said Rahman, who knew Subhan from 1970's election.
Subhan's lawyer Shahjahan Kabir had only one question for Rahman before the three-member tribunal led by Justice Obaidul Hassan with members Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Shahinur Islam adjourned the case proceedings until today.
Rahman will face further cross-examination today.