& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Witness links Subhan with mass killing

Staff Correspondent
Another prosecution witness yesterday linked Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdus Subhan to a mass killing in Sujanagar upazila of Pabna during the Liberation War.
Subhan accompanied the Pakistani army when the occupation force carried out a synchronised attack on several villages in the upazila on May 12, 1971, leaving 170-175 people dead, said Khorshed Alam, an eyewitness of the atrocities.
"What crimes had we committed [ in 19711? Was it our fault that we had supported the Awami League? ... Moulana Subhan led the atrocities in our localities. I want justice," said the emotion-chocked 63-year-old witness.
Earlier, SM Shamsul Alam, the 22nd prosecution witness in the case, gave almost identical description of the massacre. And Khorshed, the 23rd witness, yesterday said he had visited the ravaged villages with Shamsul immediately after the incident.
During his one and a half hour-long testimony, Khorshed, a retired police constable from Fakitpur, said Subhan formed Peace Committee and Razakar Bahini, two anti-liberation forces, at Singhanagar village of Satbaria union in 1971.Around 6:00am on May 12, 1971, he heard gunshots from his house and saw people fleeing the village, saying the Pakistani army had attacked their village. He too started running with them for life, said Khorshed.
Then he hid in a sugarcane field beside the union parishad office at their village as he saw a white car along with four/five Pak military vehicles near the office.
"Moulana Subhan, clad in white Panjabi, got down from the white vehicle and talked with some army men who also got down from their vehicles. And then, they [army men] opened fire on several people, who immediately collapsed on the ground."
Then, the vehicles rolled out towards Sindurpur and Kandurpur villages, said Khorshed, adding that he had seen another group of army personnel taking some 40 to 50 people towards those villages.
A few minutes later, Khorshed accompanied by Bhajan Saha, Budhishwar Saha and Balai Saha, who also had been hiding with him, came out and found the bodies of Madan Kumar Sarkar, Chetan, Ratan and Ghughria lying in front of the office.
After sometime, he met Shamsul Alam near the sugarcane field and together they returned to Fakitpur after
the Pakistani army had left the area around 2:00pm.
Later, they went to Sindurpur where one Budhishwar Biswas informed them that many people were killed, women violated and houses burnt down in their village, the witness said.
"Moulana Subhan was present at the crime scenes when the atrocities were committed," Khorshed quoted Budhishwar as saying.
Khorshed said they had seen bodies lying on the banks of the Padma river and some boats in the river. Over 100 people were killed there and most of the victims were on their way to India to take refuge.
Khorshed and Shamsul visited several other villages on that day and saw many dead bodies there. They also helped people of those villages bury the bodies.
The following day, he along with Shamsul, Fazlul Haque, the then principal of Satbaria College, and the victims' families estimated that the death toll of that day was 170-175, said Khorshed.
After his testimony, Subhan's counsel Mizanul Islam cross-examined him. The three-member International Crimes Tribunal-2 led by Justice Obaidul Hassan then adjourned the case proceedings until today when Khorshed will face further cross-examinations.