An out of the usual run of things surfaced on Monday before the International Crimes Tribunal-1 over the identification of war crimes accused Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami in the dock by the prosecution witness.
Jane Alam alias Janu, a freedom fighter prosecution witness, failed to identify accused Nizami in the dock when designated prosecutor Mohammad Ali asked him before concluding his testimony to identify the accused.
As the prosecutor asked whether he sees the accused in the tribunal, PW-16 Janu standing in the witness box said: “I don’t see.” The PW’s instant reply came as an embarrassment to the prosecutor while on the other hand the defence counsel pressed the tribunal for keeping the PW’s reply in the proceedings.
Opposing the defence demand, prosecutor Mohammad Ali asked the PW to make a search carefully for identifying the accused in the tribunal room, as you could not see the total view of the dock from the witness box. And accordingly PW Janu followed the prosecutor’s advice and identified Nizami sitting on an armed wooden chair in the dock.
Earlier, while making testimony against Nizami, PW Janu said that on December 3 in 1971, the Pakistan occupation army in association with local Razakars led by Sathia thana Al Badr commander Rafiqunnnabi alias Bablu had perpetrated massacre, looting and setting fire to the houses in village Brishalikha at the behest of then Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS) president Motiur Rahman Nizami.
The perpetrators had also killed many people, including freedom fighter Sohrab Ali who was bayoneted to death, he added. Janu said: “I came to know of the involvement of Nizami in the horrendous incident from the local elderly people.”
After his deposition, PW Janu was cross-examined by defence counsel Mizanul Islam. Replying to the defence counsel’s questions, Janu told the tribunal that he could not tell the name of the person informing him that Nizami was holding the post of president of the ICS at that time as it was the incident of 42 years back. He said that he also could not say the names of those present when Nizami had given the order of massacre on December 3, 1971.
The PW, also a worker of ruling Awami League, however, admitted that it was for the first time that he had heard the name of Jamaat Ameer Nizami. The Jamaat chief is being tried on charges of involvement in murders and torture of unarmed people along with hatching conspiracy, planning, incitement and complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War in collaboration with the occupation army.
Also the president of Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971, Nizami faces 16 counts of charges based on 16 separate incidents of crimes against humanity, in which at least 600 unarmed people were killed and 31 women raped during the Liberation War. On December 11, 2011, the prosecution submitted the charges. On January 9, 2012, the tribunal took cognisance of the formal charge against Nizami for facing the trial of crimes against humanity during country’s Liberation War. – UNB
