POREG VIEW:
Hearings of the War Crimes Tribunals are throwing up more evidence of crimes against humanity committed by Pakistani forces and their collaborators. Jamaat-e-Islami leader AKM Yusuf formed the Razakar, a collaborating force of the Pakistani junta, during the Liberation War, a journalist told the tribunal. Mahbub said he had found a Razakar’s identity card signed by Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, the then top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha. During cross examination he also stated that a captain and an assistant director used to sign on the identity card of the Razakars.
The defence counsel suggested that the witness gave “false statement” against Mojaheed “for political reason”.
“It is not true,” replied Mahbub. During his one-hour cross-examination, he also said there was no uniform for the Razakars.
Shahriar Kabir, an eminent war crimes researcher and the first prosecution witness in the case against Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, said Yusuf formed the Razakar force in Khulna during the war. Seven charges have been framed against Mojaheed. These relate to crimes against humanity, including murder, genocide and hatching a conspiracy to kill intellectuals during the war.
According to "Genocide ’71", a book that details the accounts of the wartime killers and collaborators, Yusuf in May 1971, formed the Razakar force at a meeting of 96 Jamaat workers in Khulna.
Tribunal’s investigation agency is conducting investigation into the war crimes allegedly committed by Yusuf, incumbent Nayeb-e-Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami. It hopes to complete the probe by December. It has completed its probe against two others- Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan. The agency found evidence linking the two with torture and killing of at least 18 intellectuals. Nine of them were Dhaka University teachers, six were journalists and three were physicians. Their prosecution will begin now.
From all accounts the proceedings in the Tribunals are moving slowly. As Justice Nizamul Huq who heads one of the Tribunals said, the Tribunals are giving a patient hearing to the defence ‘since we are always careful about justice’. The defence is allowed cross examination of the prosecution witnesses, which is time consuming. The defence is also popping up objections.
