STAFF CORRESPONDENT

A father yesterday told International Crimes Tribunal-1 how he found his teenage son’s body among several gunshot victims at a hospital during the July uprising in 2024.

Kabir Hossain Mridha, a painter from Tongi, testified as a prosecution witness in a crimes against humanity case against Sajeeb Wazed Joy, former ICT adviser and son of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and former state minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak.

Kabir said he received a call on August 5 and learnt that his 16-year-old son, Sanjid, had been shot.

According to his testimony, Sanjid joined a victory procession in Uttara with his sister and brother-in-law after Hasina fled the country. As gunfire erupted, a bullet hit him. Locals took him to Crescent Hospital in Uttara.

“When I arrived at the hospital around 8:00pm, I found my son dead. Eight other people with gunshot wounds were also lying dead there,” he told the tribunal.

Kabir alleged that police, Chhatra League and Jubo League activists were responsible for the killings. He also claimed that armed activists opened fire outside the hospital and vandalised it to obstruct treatment of the injured. More than 35 people were killed in Uttara that day, he said.

He further alleged that supporters of former Gazipur mayor Jahangir Alam assaulted him while he was taking his son’s body home and later tried to prevent the burial in Tongi.

“I pleaded with them and finally managed to bury my son,” Kabir said, seeking justice and punishment for those responsible.

Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor yesterday delivered the opening statement in a July uprising case against 28 people, including former DSCC mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and former minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, formally beginning the trial.