IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BANGLADESH

APPELLATE DIVISION

     PRESENT:

             Mr. Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha,    Chief Justice

Mrs. Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana Mr. Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain Mr. Justice Hasan Foez Siddique

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.103 OF 2013.

(From the judgment and order dated 17.07.2013 passed by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 ( ICT-2) in ICT-BD Case No.04 of 2012.)

Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid:         Appellant.

=Versus=

The Chief Prosecutor, International        Respondent. Crimes Tribunal, Dhaka, Bangladesh:

For the Appellant:  Mr. Khondker  Mahbub Hossain,

Senior Advocate with Mr. S.M. Shahjahan, Advocate, instructed by Mr. Zainul Abedin, Advocate- on-Record.

For the Respondent:  Mr.  Mahbubey  Alam,  Attorney

General(with  Mr.  Murad  Reza, Additional Attorney General, Mr. Momtazuddin  Fakir,  Additional Attorney General, Mr. Biswajit Debnath,  D.A.G.,  Mr.  Ekramul Hoque, D.A.G., Mr. Masud Hasan Chowdhury, D.A.G., Mr. Khondaker Diliruzzaman,  D.A.G.,  and  Mr. Bashir Ahmed, A.A.G., instructed by  Syed  Mahbubar  Rahman, Advocate-on-Record.

Date of hearing : 29.04.2015, 04.05.2015, 05.05.2015,

06.05.2015, 17.05.2015, 24.05.2015,             23.05.2015 and 26.05.2015.

Judgment on:   16-06-2015

JUDGMENT

Hasan Foez Siddique, J: This statutory appeal, by convict Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid (the appellant), has been filed under section 21 of the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973

(in short, ICT Act) against the judgment and order dated the 17th day of July, 2013 by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 (ICT-2) in ICT- BD Case No.04 of 2012 (The Chief Prosecutor v. Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid) finding him guilty for the “Crimes against Humanity” enumerated in section 3(2) of the ICT Act listed in charge Nos.1,3,5,6 and 7 and convicting and sentencing him under section 20 of the ICT Act to a “single sentence of death” for the crimes as listed in charge Nos.6 and 7 and also sentencing him to suffer 5(five) years imprisonment for the crimes as listed in charge No.3, and imprisonment for life for the Crimes as listed in charge no.5. However, the Tribunal did not award any separate sentence for the crimes as listed in charge No.1 since charges No.1 and 6 are, in fact, are identical, i.e. charges for intellectual killings for the same period. The ICT-2 acquitted the appellant of the other charges framed against him.

Before considering the accusation made against the appellant chargewise with reference to the evidence and provisions of the ICT Act we would like to narrate the background of the case. It is relevant here to mention that ICT

Act provides that the Tribunal should not require proof of facts of common knowledge but shall take judicial notice thereof. The term “common knowledge” denotes facts those are commonly accepted or universally known, such as, general facts of history. In International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Prosecutor v. Semanza,  ICTR-97-20-A Appeal Judgment 20 May,2005 it has been held that taking judicial notice of the facts of common knowledge is a matter of an obligation and not discretionary. In determining what constitutes common knowledge the ICTR held that these are facts that are so notorious or clearly established or susceptible to determination by reference to readily obtainable and authoritative sources that evidence of their existence is unnecessary. It further elaborated that common knowledge concerns facts that are generally known in the tribunal’s jurisdiction and are reasonably undisputable.

Furthermore, this case heard by this Division necessarily carries  the greatest burden of establishing the historical context of the crimes concerned. The furthest going reliance is enabled when the law allows taking judicial notice of adjudicated facts. 

People of Pakistan exercised their franchise to elect their representatives to run the Government of the country, the then Pakistan. Their opinion in that regard was reflected in the election of Pakistan National Assembly held in the last part of 1970. The result of the election was as follows:

Total seats-313

Awami League   - bagged....167 seats. Pakistan People’s party  - "         ....88 seats.

All Pakistan Muslim

League (Quayyum)            "   ....09 seats. Muslim League

      (Council)            "    ....07 seats. Jamat-ul-Ulema-i- Islam     "    ....07 seats. Markazi Jamat-ul-Ulema      "   ....07 seats.

   -i-Islam(Thanvi Group)                            National Awami Party        "   ....07 seats.

         (Wali Khan)  

Jamat-e-Islami              "    ....04 seats. Muslim League               "    ....02 seats.

  (convention)  

Pakistan Democratic Party   "    ....01 seat.

Independent                    " ....14 seats.

(source: “The Dawn”

The verdict of the people of East Pakistan to represent them in the National Assembly as reflected in the result of Pakistan National Assembly held in East Pakistan was as follows:

Total seats 169

Awami League           ....167(indirectly elected                                     women’s seats 07)

Pakistan Democratic Party....01

Independent             ....01

                           169    

(source: “The Dawn”)                   That is, the People of East Pakistan did

not give any authority to any one from Jamat-e- Islami or its student organization Islamic Chattra Sangha (ICS) to speak on their behalf,

in other words, represent them in the Pakistan National Assembly.

To run the Provincial Government in East Pakistan, the People’s opinion to represent

them was reflected in the result of East Pakistan Provincial Assembly Election which was

as follows:

Total seats-310

Awami League       ...298 seats(including 10      

indirectly

elected

women’s seats) Pakistan Democratic Party ......02 seats

National Awami Party got......01 seat       (Wali Khan)

Jamat-e-Islami        .......01 seat Nizam-e-Islami        .......01 seat

Independent           .......07 seats

                              310 seats

                          (source: “The Dawn”)

In Provincial Assembly election Jamat-e- Islami secured only one seat out of 310 seats. The elected M.P. from Jamat-e-Islami was Md. Abdur Rohman Fakir who got 13,693 votes and his nearest rival was Awami League candidate A.K. Mojibor Rohman who bagged 12,300 votes. (The activities of only elected member Mr. Md. Abdur Rohman Fakir during the war of Liberation was not highlighted in the newspapers or in any other way)

Democracy is a form of government in which the sovereign power resides in and is exercised by the whole body of free citizens directly or indirectly through a system of representation as distinguished from a monarchy, aristocracy, or oligarchy. It means “People’s power”. It stands for the actual, active and effective exercise of power by the people in this regard. Schumpeter gives a simple definition of democracy as “the ability of people to choose and dismiss a Government”. Giovanni Sartori said that democracy is a multi-party system in which the majority governs and respects the right of minority. It is the Government of the People, for the people and by the people. The politicians and political scientists failed to discover any other better way to change the Government peacefully other than the process of adult franchise. Such process had been adopted and recognized as way of democracy.

In view of the result of election held in 1970 Yahya Khan, the then President of Pakistan, had no other option but to hand over power to the majority party who bagged highest seats. It was his democratic obligation to request majority party leader to form government subsequent after publication of result of the election in the official gazette. If any one claimed to be a democrate or to have slightest respect in democracy he could not deny to allow the majority party to form government respecting the people’s will.

Now, let us see what happened in case of the then Pakistan, after holding election in last part of 1970 and in view of the result of the election. Siddiq Salik, military’s public relations officer in East Pakistan, in his book, “Witness to Surrender” narrated, “------- a General in Yahya’s confidence who came to Dacca in late December. After a sumptuous

dinner at Government House, he declared during an informal chat. Don’t worry---- we will not allow these black bastards to rule over us.” Subsequent facts reveal that this sentiment was not only one general.

21.12.1970

“Mr. Zulfiqer Ali Bhutto, Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) declared in Lahore on December 20, 1970 that the PPP is not prepared to occupy the opposition Benches in the National Assembly. He added, “Majority alone doesn’t count in national politics.” (‘The Dawn’)

 30.01.1971

“About the convening of the Constituent Assembly on February 15 as suggested by Sheikh Mujib, the PPP Chief remained non-committal, but said there was nothing wrong “if we take time up to the end of February at least.” (“The Pakistan Times”)

13.02.1971

“Summoned the National Assembly to meet in

Dhaka on 3rd March 1971.” ( “The Dawn”).  15.02.1971

“Mr. Z.A. Bhutto declared that his party will not attend the National Assembly

Session starting on March 3 at Dacca

unless it was made clear to him and his partymen that there would be some amount

of reciprocity from the majority party,

either publicly or privately.”

 (“The Dawn”)

17.02.1971

“Mr. Bhutto said, the Assembly would have

been a “slaughter house” (“The Dawn,”)

01.03.1971

“Yahya puts off National Assembly Sessions”. (“The Morning News”)

02.03.1971

“The Sheikh said: “Only for the sake of a minority parties disagreement the democratic

process of constitution has been obstructed

and the National Assembly Session has been postponed sine die. This is most unfortunate

so far we are concerned. We are the representatives of the majority people and

we cannot allow it to go unchallenged.”         (“The People”) 

04.03.1971

“In an emotion choaked voice the Sheikh in

his 30 minute speech called upon the people

to continue their struggle in a peaceful

and organised manner”.(“The Dawn”) 04.03.1971

“Report of the Press Conference at Karachi Press Club on March 03, 1971 by Air Marshal (Rtd.) Asghar Khan.

Air Marshal (Rtd.) Asghar Khan yesterday advocated immediate transfer of power to the majority party in the country in order to retrieve the present “close to disaster” situation.

Addressing a hurriedly called Press Conference at the Karachi Press Club he said President Yahya should invite Sheikh Mujibur Rohman and hand over power- “real power” to him in line with the democratic processes and in the interest of preserving national integrity and solidarity.

He told a correspondent that the constitution making job could wait. What now took precedence was the transfer of power to where it belonged, namely, the single largest party in the National Assembly.” (“The Dawn” )

06.03.1971

“Army withdrawn to barracks-East Wing Protest continues-Firing in Tongi, Rajshahi Announcement by Martial Law Authorities on March 5, 1971.

The announcement further said, “Following Sheikh Mujibur Rohman’s appeal for peace, there has been considerable improvement in the general law and order situation during the past 24 hours.”

(“The Dawn”) 07.03.1971

“Tikka Khan, Governor  of East Pakistan.

Announcement on March 6, 1971- Chief Martial Law Administrator.” (“The Dawn”)  Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman leader of

the majority party on 7 March, 1971 declared:

""p¡j¢lL kvpe j¡nÑ¡m m withdraw  Ll−a q−hz pjØa p¡j¢lL h¡¢qe£l ®m¡L−cl hÉ¡l¡−Ll ¢ial Y¤L−a q−hz ®k i¡C−cl qaÉ¡ Ll¡ q−u−R a −cl ac¿¹ Ll−a q−hz

Bl SeN−el fË¢a¢e¢dl L¡−R rja¡ qØa¡¿¹l Ll−a q−h''----

Hlfl k¢c 1¢V …¢m Q−m, Hlfl k¢c Bj¡l ®m¡L−L qaÉ¡ Ll¡ u ®a¡j¡−cl L¡−R           Ae¤−l¡d lCm, fË−aÉL O−l O−l c§NÑ N−s ®a¡mz ®a¡j¡−cl k¡ ¢LR¤ B−R HC ¢e−u nœ¦l       ®j¡L¡−hm¡ Ll−a q−h-------fË−aÉL NË¡−j, fË−aÉL jqõ¡u BJu¡j£ m£−Nl ®ea«−aÄ pwNË¡j f¢loc N−s a¥m¤e Hhw Bj¡−cl k¡ ¢LR¤ B−R, a¡C ¢e−u fËÙºa b¡L¤ez lš² kMe ¢c−u¢R

B−l¡ lš² ®c−h¡z H ®c−nl j¡e¤o−L j¤š² L−l a¥m−h¡ Cen¡õ&¡qz Hh¡−ll pwNË¡j Bj¡−cl j¤¢š²l pwNË¡j, Hh¡−ll pwNË¡j ü¡d£ea¡l pwNË¡jz Su h¡wm¡z”

“Mujib’s carefully calibrated speech fill short of a declaration of secession from Pakistan, as large number of people especially

the extremist’ student wing of his own party.

But the conclusion of his speech, which implied that his ultimate goal was independence, pacified them.” (S.A. Karim Sheikh Mujib- Thiumph and Tragedy)“

09-03-1971

“¢be©vwPZ fË¢a¢e¢dl q¡−a rja¡ qØa¡¿¹lC pwLV j¤¢š²l HLj¡œ fb”

        .........pÇf¡cL£uz ---------pwLV Hs¡C−a qC−m A¢hm−ð SefË¢a¢e¢d−cl q¡−a rja¡ qØa¡¿¹l Ll¡

HL¡¿¹ Sl¦l£z Hu¡l j¡nÑ¡m e¤l M¡e ®a¡ ØføaC h¢mu¡−Re ®k, ®nM j¤¢Sh¤l lqj¡−el ®cn n¡pe Ll¡l BCeNa A¢dL¡l l¢qu¡−R Hhw rja¡ qØa¡¿¹−ll

plL¡l fË¢ahåLa¡ A¢hm−ð cly Ll¡ E¢Qaz Hu¡l j¡nÑ¡m BpNl M¡e J ®nM j¤¢Sh¤l lqj¡−el naÑ¡hm£ AaÉ¿¹ k¤¢š²k¤š² h¢mu¡ j−e L−lez”

                                                (“ ®~c¢eL f¡¢LÙ¹¡e”) 10-03-1971

“Na (j‰mh¡l) Ni£l l¡−œ ¢f,¢f, BC Hhw He¡ f¢l−h¢na Mh−l fËL¡n Q£g j¡nÑ¡m m HW¢j¢e−øÊVl pw¢nÔø ¢h¢d f¢lhaÑe L¢lu¡ ®mx ®Sx ¢VL LÚ ¡ M¡e Hp ¢f ®L- ®L "M' A’−ml j¡nÑ¡m m' HX¢j¢e−øV« l ¢e−u¡N L¢lu¡−Rez”

  (“ ®~c¢eL C−šg¡L”)

“m¢Où c−ml ®ea¡ i¥−Æv p¡−q−hl ®Sc¡−S¢c−a S¡a£u f¢lo−cl A¢d−hne Øq¢Na l¡M¡l g−m f¢l¢Øq¢a Lacly Ns¡Cu¡−R ®p pÇf−LÑ plL¡l ¢eÕQuC Ah¢qaz p¡j¢lL La«Ñf−rl ®fËp ¢h‘¢ç−aC fËL¡n, p¡l¡ f§hÑ h¡wm¡u pç¡qhÉ¡f£ ®N¡m−k¡−N 172 hÉ¢š² fË¡Y q¡l¡Cu¡−Re, Bqa qCu¡−Re 358 Sez kb¡pj−u S¡a£u f¢lo−cl A¢d−hne

Ae¤¢ùa qC−m Ha…¢m Aj§mÉ fË¡Y AL¡−m ¢heø qCa e¡z”

                                                  (“ ®~c¢eL f¡¢LÙ¹¡e”)

13.03.1971

“Report of the meeting held on March, 13,1971 at Lahore by Minority Groups in

the National Assembly.

The minority groups in the National Assembly at a meeting held here today accepted in principle, the four point demand of Awami League Chief Sheikh Mujibur Rohman, and demanded that interim governments should be set up at the Centre

and in the Provinces before the

commencement of the Assembly on March 25.” 14.03.1971

“Ll¡Q£l Sepi¡u fz‡Ævx

Ll¡Q£, 14C j¡QÑ (¢f ¢f BC)x- f¡¢LÙ¹¡e ¢ffmp f¡¢VÑ fËd¡e Se¡h ®SX, H, fz‡Æv 

BS f§hÑ J f¢ÕQj f¡¢LÙ¹¡−el c¤C pwMÉ¡N¢lø c−ml q¡−a rja¡ qØa¡¿¹−ll fl¡jnÑ ¢cu¡−Rez”

                                          (“®~c¢eL f¡¢LÙ¹¡e - 15C j¡QÑ 1971”)

“Rule of majority does not apply to Pakistan. PPP cannot be ignored in country’s governance.”

      (”The Dawn”)

16.03.1971

“Minority parties leaders criticize Bhutto’s speech .....Mian Tufail Mahammad acting “Amir” of the Jamat-i=Islami said in Lahore on Sunday that the setting up of two separate governments in the two wings of the country would be a negation of the Legal Framework Order.

..... He said Mr. Z.A. Bhutto, by making this suggestion had clearly stated his purpose of becoming the sole ruler in West Pakistan. He said it was strange that Mr. Bhutto had now started talking about West Pakistan as a single unit. He said that the conditions prevalent in East Pakistan today were a result of the attitude adopted by Mr. Bhutto.” (underlined by us)

(“The Pakistan Times”) 18.03.1971

“Cu¡¢qu¡- j¤¢Sh ¢àa£u cg¡ B−m¡Qe¡ pj¡ç

B−m¡Qe¡ Qm−h”

(“®~c¢eL f§hÑ−cn”)  

20-03-1971

“BJu¡j£ m£N fËd¡e ®nM j¤¢Sh¤l lqj¡e NaL¡m öœ²h¡l pL¡−m ®fË¢p−X¾V −Se¡−lm BN¡ −j¡q¡Çjc Cu¡¢qu¡ M¡−el p¡−b 90 ¢j¢eVhÉ¡f£ ®c−nl haÑj¡e l¡S®~e¢aL f¢l¢Øq¢a Hhw n¡pea¡¢¿»L AQm¡hØq¡ pÇf−LÑ a«a£u cg¡ B−m¡Qe¡ L−l−Rez a ¡y l¡ BS n¢eh¡l pL¡m cnV¡u Ef−cø¡pq B−m¡Qe¡u ¢j¢ma q−µRez”

(“®~c¢eL f§hÑ−cn”)

21-03-1971

“j¤¢Sh-Cu¡¢qu¡ ®~hWL pwLV ¢elp−el f−b H…−µR”

     (ø¡g ¢l−f¡V¡l©)

l¡øÊÊ£u e£¢al haÑj¡e pwLV ¢elp−el f−b j¤¢Sh-Cu¡¢qu¡ B−m¡Qe¡ NaL¡m n¢eh¡l ANËN¢a p¡¢da q−u−Rz pwNË¡j£ h¡wm¡l AfË¢aà¾c£¦ e uL ®nM j¤¢Sh¤l lqj¡e NaL¡m ay¡l c−ml n£oÑØq¡e£u Afl 6Se pqLjÑ£−L ¢e−u f¡¢LÙ¹¡−el ®fË¢p−X¾V Cu¡¢qu¡ M¡−el p¡−b 130 ¢j¢eV B−m¡Qe¡ ®n−o ¢a¢e J ay¡l pqLj£ÑNY pq¡pÉhc−e ®fË¢p−X¾V ihe ®b−L ®h¢l−u B−pez f−l ay¡l h¡pih e ¢a¢e p¡wh¡¢cL−cl h−me, B−m¡Qe¡u ¢LR¤V¡ ANËN¢a q−u−Rz ®nM p¡−qh h−me, l¡S®~e¢aL pwLV pj¡d¡−el f−b ay¡l¡ H…−µRez”

(“®~c¢eL f¡¢LÙ¹¡e”)

22-03-1971

“−fË¢p−X−¾Vl p¡−b fz‡Ævi B−m¡Qe¡x

""ph ¢LR¤C ¢WL q−u k¡−h''

(“®~c¢eL pwNË¡j”) 23.03.1971

“National Assembly Session put off again.”

        (“The Pakistan Times”)

“No legal impediments in power transfer”

Brohi

   (‘The People’)

Those are the short and relevant news items

published in the different newspapers from the date of publication of the result of election held in Pakistan in 1970 to 25th March, 1971, which reflected the attitude of Yahya Khan and Z.A.  Bhutto towards democracy. The policy adopted by them was apparently against the democracy and United Pakistan as well. Yahya Khan hatched a conspiracy with Bhutto in Larkana, which had been admitted by the Pakistan Generals and Policy makers subsequently, in which, they decided not to hand over power to the majority Party and thereby adjourned the Session of National Assembly. Husain Haqqani in his book “Pakistan between Mosque and Military” narrated situation with the following words: “The military’s apologists as well as Bhutto’s opponents blame Bhutto for adopting an undemocratic attitude when he refused to acknowledge the rights of the Bengali majority party. Bhutto’s associates and some impartial observers, however, blame the military leadership. The overwhelming

sentiment among the West Pakistani elite against letting the Bengalies dominate Pakistan made it more likely that Bhutto and the military acted in concert, in the interest of West Pakistan as they perceived it.”

Regarding conspiracy hatched in Larkana, Mr. S.A. Karim, a member of the then Pakistan Foreign Service in his book “Sheikh Mujib- Triumph and Tragedy” narrated:

“Indeed the lands around Larkana, the home town of Bhutto, are a hunter’s paradise abounding in dueks, partridges and wild boar. Providentially, or more likely by pre- arrangement, Bhutto was there to offer Yahya his lavish hospitality in his country estate. Yahya was accompanied by two fellow-hunters, General Hamid and Peerzada. They were not merely to give Yahya company but to make sure that he did not compromise the vital interest of the Army or that of West Pakistan. Next to Yahya they were the most powerful members of the ruling junta.

Yahya and Bhutto talked for five hours without any aides. Because of the secretive nature of their talks not every detail of what they talked about is known. However, Yahya had to keep his fellow generals in the junta informed and they leaked out some information to others. Bhutto, on his part, gave a sanitized verson of their conversation to his close advisers and wrote a paragraph about the meeting in his slim book “The Great Tragedy” published several months later to justify his role in the military crackdown of March 1971. It is possible to reconstrual, therefore, is broad outline what transpired at their Larkana meeting.

After Larkana there could be little doubt that Bhutto had achieved his purpose. No longer would Yahya refer to Mujib as the future Prime Minister of Pakistan.

He further narrated the continguency plan for a possible confrontation with Mujib was already under preparation. The docks needed to be cleared for a possible military action in East Pakistan. To that end, on 22 February, Yahya called a conference of Governors and Martial Law Administrator General Peerzada and Hamid were also present at the conference. Yahya brought up the matter of political deadlock in the Assembly Session and the desirability of postponing it. Both Governor Ahsan and MLA Yakub were against the idea of postponement and wrote a memorandum bringing out the disastrous implications of rolling back the political situation to what it was in 1969. Yahya seemed somewhat shaken told them: “I am willing to accept your views. But go and convince Mr. Bhutto. He is the one who is insisting on postponement.” Ahsan and Yakub went to Karachi to meet Bhutto. He told them: “You need not be apprehensive about the reaction of East Pakistan. Awami League is a bourgeois party. It is not a party of the masses. It cannot fight a guerrilla war. There will be no violent conflict in East Pakistan.”

“The decision to use force in East Pakistan was made secretly on 11 February, 1971 by the top Generals, including Hamid Khan, S.G.M.M. Pirzada, Gul Hasan Khan, Tikka Khan, Ghulam Umer and Akbor Khan at the army headquaters. The Deputy Chief of Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency, S.A. Saud, who attended the secret meeting, opposed the idea and leaked it to a senior Bengali officer of the Intelligence Department. The Bengali, in turn, informed Mujib of the Army’s decision. Yahya’s plan to suppress the Bengalis was apparently given the final shape in early March. Iqbal F. Quadir, a retired Vice Admiral with the Pakistan Navy, got the hint on 8 March, from Admiral Muzaffar Hasan, the Navy Chief. Quadir, who was about to leave for Paris for a stint as Pakistan’s Naval Attache, had gone to bid farewell to his Chief when the Admiral told him that a Major General, who was visiting Karachi, had mentioned to him in passing that the Army would be ready for action in East Pakistan by 17 March. Quadir later discovered that the Major General was Akbar Khan, the Military Intelligence Chief.

On 3rd March, the State Department sent a cable to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, which clearly indicated the United States had anticipated Yahya would use the military to suppress the Bengalis. The telegram said that as the Pakistani political crisis depended with the possibility that the “Martial Law Administrator may be prepared to use force to maintain unity” the attitude of the Indian government took on a growing importance.

On 11 March, the U.S. Consul General in Karachi told the State Department it had further information that Yahya could unleash the military force in East Pakistan” (Myths and Facts-Bangladesh Liberation War-B.Z. Khasru). “The attitude of the Army was summed up by the general officer commanding, Major General Khadim Hussain Raza, who told an Awami League sympathizer within the hearing of fellow officers: “I will muster all I can- tanks, artillery and machine guns- to kill all the traitors and, if necessary, raze Dacca to the ground. There will be no one to Rule; there will be nothing to Rule.” (Pakistan -between Mosque and Military- by Husain Haqqani)”

Now let us see how the Pakistani Rulers, Army, Politicians, and Policy makers dealt with their own majority citizens in East Pakistan after 25.03.1971. How the policy makers, servants of the people and “Patriotic Army” salaried by the people dealt with own countrymen in the name of Islam and defence of Pakistan.

Siddiq Salik, a Pak Army officer who was in Dhaka throughout the fateful year, 1971 as a uniquely privileged observer and participant in political and human drama. He witnessed the activities of Pakistan Army in Bangladesh and was involved in “Operation Searchlight”. He, in

his book “Witness to Surrender” gave descriptions of Pakistan Army’s ‘Operation Searchlight’ on the night of Thursday 25th March, 1971 with the following words:

“Major General Khadim Hussain was brooding over the possible out come of political talks on 25 March when his green telephone rang at about 11 a.m. Lieutenant-General Tikka Khan was on the line. He said, ‘Khadim, it is tonight’.

It created no excitement for Khadim. He was already waiting for the fall of the hammer. The President’s decision coincided with the second anniversary of his assumption of power. General Khadim passed the word to his staff for implementation. The lower the news travelled, the greater the sensation it created. I saw some junior officers hustling about mustering some extra recoilless rifles, getting additional ammunition issued, a defective mortar sight replaced. The tank crew, brought from Rangpur (29 Cavalry) a few days earlier, hurried with their task to oil six rusty M-24s for use at night. They were enough to make a noise on the Dacca streets.

The general staff of Headquarters 14 Division rang up all the outstation garrisons to inform them of H-hour. They devised a private code for passing the message. All garrisons were to act simultaneously. It was calculated that by then the President would have landed safely in Karachi.

The plan for operation SEARCHLIGHT visualized the setting up of two headquaters. Major General Farman, with 57 Brigade under Brigadier Arbab, was responsible for operations in Dacca city and its suburbs while Major General Khadim was to look after the rest of the province. In addition, Lieutenant General Tikka Khan and his staff were to spend the night at the Martial Law Headquarters in the Second Capital to watch the progress of action in and outside Dacca.

A few days earlier, General Yahya had sent Major General Iftikhar Janjua and Major General A.O. Mitha to Dacca as possible replacements for Khadim and Farman in case they refused to crack down. After all, they had formed General Yakub’s team untill very recently and might still share his ideas. General Hamid had even gone to the extent of questioning Khadim’s and Farman’s wives to assess their husbands’ views on the subject. Both the Generals, however, assured Hamid that they would faithfully carry out the orders.

Junior officers like me started collecting at Headquarters, Martial Law Administrator, Zone ‘B’Second Capital) at about 10 p.m. They laid out Sofas and Easy Chairs on the lawn and made arrangements for tea and coffee to last the night. I had no specific job to perform except to be available . A Jeep fitted with a wireless set was parked next to this ‘outdoor operations room’. The city wrapped in starlight, was in deep slumber. The night was as pleasant as a spring night in Dacca could be. The setting was perfect for anything but a bloody holocaust.(underlined by us)

At the given hour, Brigadier Arbab’s brigade was to act as follows:

13 Frontier Force was to stay in Dacca cantonment as reserve and defend the cantonment, if necessary. 43 Light Anti- Aircraft (LAA) Regiment, deployed at the airport in an anti aircraft role since the banning of overflights by India, was to look after the airport area.

22 Baluch, already in East Pakistan rifles Lines at Pilkhana, was to disarm approximately 5,000 E.P.R. personnel and seize their wireless exchange.

32 Punjab was to disarm 1,000 ‘highly motivated’ policemen, a prime possible source of armed manpower for the Awami League, at Rajarbagh Police Lines.

18 Punjab was to fan out in the Nawabpur area and the old city where many Hindu houses were said to have been converted into armouries. Field Regiment was to control the Second Capital and the adjoining Bihari localities (Mohammadpur, Mirpur).

A composite force consisting of one Company each of 18 Punjab, 22 Baluch and 32 Punjab, was to ‘flush’ the University Campus particularly Iqbal Hall and Jagan Nath Hall which were reported to be the strong points of the Awami League rebels.

A platoon of Special Service Group (Commandos) was to raid Mujib’s house and capture him alive.

ALLOTMENT OF TROOPS TO TASKS

DACCA

Command and Control: Maj. Gen. Farman with H.Q. M.L.A. Zone B.

Troops

H.Q.57 Brigade with troops in Dacca, i.e. 18 Punjab, 32 Punjab (C.O. to be replaced by [Lt. Col.] Taj, GSO I(Int)), 22 Baluch, 13 Frontier Force, 31 Field Regt., 13 Light Act-Ack Regt., Company of 3 Commando (from Comilla).

Tasks:

1. Neutralise by disarming 2 and 10 East Bengal, H.Q. East Pakistan Rifles (2500), Reserve Police at Rajar Bagh(2000).
2. Exchange and transmitters, Radio, TV, State Bank.
3. Arrest Awami League leaders-detailed lists and addresses.
4. University Halls, Iqbal, Jagan Nath, Liaqat (Engineering University)
5. Seal off town including road, rail and river. Patrol river.
6. Protect factories at Ghazipur and Ammo Depot at Rajendrapur.

Remainder: Under Maj. Gen. K.H. Raja and H.Q.

14 Div.

        JESSORE

Troops:

H.Q. 107 Brigade, 25 Baluch, 27 Baluch, Elements of 24 Field Regt., 55 Field Regt.

Tasks:

1. Disarm 1 East Bengal and Sector H.Q. East Pakistan Rifles and Reserve Police incl. Ansar weapons.
2. Secure Jessore town and arrest Awami League and student leaders.
3. Exchange and telephone communications.
4. Zone of security round Cantt. Jessore town and Jessore-Khulna road, airfield.
5. Exchange at Kushtia to be made inoperative.
6. Reinforce Khulna if required.

KHULNA

Troops:

22 FF

Tasks:

1. Security in town.
2. Exchange and Radio Station.
3. Wing H.Q. East Pakistan Rifles, Reserve Companies and Reserve Police to be disarmed.
4. Arrest Awami League students and communist leaders.

RANGPUR-SAIDPUR

Troops:

H.Q. 23 Brigade, 29 Cavalry, 26 Frontier Force, 23 Field Regt.

Tasks:

1. Security of Rangpur-Saidpur.
2. Disarm 3 East Bengal at Saidpur.
3. If possible disarm Sector H.Q. and Reserve Company at Dinajpur or neutralise by dispersal Reserve Company by reinforcing border outposts.
4. Radio Station and telephone exchange at Rangpur.
5. Awami League and student leaders at Rangpur.
6. Ammo dump at Bogra.

RAJSHAHI

Troops:

25 Punjab

Tasks:

1. Despatch C.O.-Shafqat Baluch.
2. Exchange and Radio Station Rajshahi.
3. Disarm Reserve Police and Sector H.Q. East Pakistan Rifles.
4. Rajshahi University and in particular Medical College.
5. Awami League and student leaders.

COMILLA

Troops:

53 Field Regiments,  1½ Mortar Barreries, Station troops, 3 Commando Batallion (less Company)

Tasks:

1. Disarm 4 East Bengal, Wing H.Q. East Pakistan Rifles, Reserve District Police.
2. Secure town and arrest Awami League leaders and students.
3. Exchange.

SYLHET

Troops:

31 Punjab less company

 Tasks:

1. Radio Station, Exchange.
2. Koeno Bridge over Surma.
3. Airfield
4. Awami League and student leaders.
5. Disarm, Section H.Q. East Pakistan Rifles and Reserve Police. Liaise with Sikandar. CHITTAGONG

Troops:

20 Baluch, less advance party; Company 31 Punjab present ex Sylhet; Iqbal Shafi to lead a mobile column from Comilla by road and reinforce S.T.0100 Hrs (H hrs)on D-Day.

Mobile Column: Brig. Iqbal Shafi with Tac H.Q. and Communications; 24 Frontier Force; Troop Heavy Mortars; Field Company Engineers; Company in advance to Feni on evening D-Day.

Tasks:

1. Disarm E.B.R.C., 8 East Bengal, Section H.Q. East Pakistan Rifles, Reserve Police.
2. Seize Central Police Armoury (Twenty thousand)
3. Radio Station and Exchange.
4. Liaise with Pakistan Navy (Commodore Mumtaz)
5. Liaise with Shaigri and Janjua (C.O.8 East Bengal) who have been instructed to take orders from you till arrival Iqbal Shafi.
6. If Shigri and Janjua feel sure about their outfits then do not disarm. In that case merely put in a road block to town from Cantt. by placing a Company in defensive position so that later E.B.R.C. and 8 East Bengal are blocked should they change their loyalties.
7. I am taking Brig. Mozamdar with me. Arrest Chaudhury (C.I. E.B.R.C.) on D-Day night. Arrest of Awami League and student leaders after above accomplished.”

Only insensible man can believe that such barbarious attack targeting unarmed people was made without previous plan. That was brutal attack by Pakistan Army to the citizens of Pakistan who used to pay their salaries. Arrival of Yahya Khan and, thereafter, Z.A Bhutto in Dhaka and sittings and talkings with the leaders of the majority party were mockeries which are apparent from the plan and attrocities committed by the Army.

Archer K Blood, the American Consul General in the then East Pakistan in 1971 in his book “The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh” described the horror watching the same with the following words:

“Together with our house guests, we spent a good part of the night of March 25-26 on the flat roof of the house, watching with horror the constant flash of tracer bullets across the dark sky and listening to the more ominous clatter of machine gun fire and the heavy clump of tank guns. We are able to establish that there was particularly heavy firing in the vicinity of the police lines and the East Pakistan Rifles barracks. We could see many fires burning, some of them in old Dacca. Our head bearer told us that one particularly large fire was burning in a poor bazaar area where many of his lived.” He added, “Let us use the most conservative estimate of the number of students killed at Dacca University, i.e. 500. Our police sources indicated that from 600-800 East Pakistani police were killed in Dacca during the hard fighting on the night of March 25. Probably several hundred Bengali members of the East Pakistan Rifles were killed that night. Also hard to estimate is the number of casualties in the Old City where Army troops burned Hindu and Bengali areas and shot the occupants as they came tumbling out. Most observers put these casulties in the range of 2000-4000.

At this juncture we estimated that as many as 4000-6000 people had lost their lives as a result of military action in Dacca.

On March 28 I sent a telegram captioned ‘Selective Genocide’ As far as I know, it was the first time that term had been used, but it was not to be the last”

On his return to London, John Stonehouse M.P. was interviewed on the “Today Program” of B.B.C. on April 27, Stonehouse said that “terrible” things had happened in East Bengal, things which have not been seen since the last war. Describing it further Stonehouse said that what had happended in East Bengal “makes Vietnam look like a tea party. “He talked in particular of the incident at Dacca University on March 25, when staff and students were rounded up and shot in cold-blood.”

The news of the atrocities of the said fateful night, and, thereafter,  had been reported by Simon Dring of Daily Telegraph, London, published in its 30.03.1971 issue, which was as follows:-

“GENOCIDE IN BANGLADESH SOME EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNTS ‘HOW DACCA PAID FOR A UNITED PAKISTAN

Report by Simon Dring of Daily Telegraph, London, March 30, 1971

7000 slaughtered: Homes burned “ In the name of “God and a United Pakistan” “Dacca is today a crushed and frightened city. After 24 hours of ruthless, cold-blooded shelling by the Pakistan Army, as many as 7000 people are dead, large areas  have been leveled and East Pakistan’s for independence has been brutally put to an end.

It is impossible accurately to assess what all this has so far cost in terms of innocent human lives. But report beginning to filter in from the outlying areas, Chittagong, Comilla and Jessore put the figure, including Dacca, in the region of 15,000 dead.

Only the horror of the military action can be properly gauged the students dead in their beds, the butches is in the markets killed behind their stalls, the women and children roasted alive in their houses, the Pakistani Hindu religion taken out and shot enmasse, the bazaars and shoping areas razed by fire and the Pakistan flag that now flies over every building in the capital.

An estimated three battalions of troops were used in the attack on Dacca – one of armored, one of artillery and one of infantry. They started leaving their barracks shortly before 10 p.m. By 11, firing had broken out and the people who had started to erect makeshift barricades- overturned cars, three stumps, furniture concrete piping- became early casualties as the troops rolled into town.

Sheikh Mujibur was warned by telephone that something was happening, but he refused to leave his house. ‘If I go into hiding they will burn the whole of Dacca to find me,’ He told an aide who escaped arrest.

The students were also warned, but those who were still around later said that most of them thought they would only be arrested. Led by American supplied M-24 World War II Tanks, one column of troops speed to Dacca University shortly after midnight. Troops took over the British Council Library and used it as a fire base from which to shell nearby dormitory areas.

Caught completely by surprise, some 200 students were killed in Iqbal Hall, headquarters of the militantly anti-government student’s union, as shells slammed into the building and their rooms were sprayed with machine gun fire.

The military removed many of the bodies, but the 30 bodies till there could never have accounted for all the blood in the corridors of Iqbal Hall.

At another hall, reportedly, soldiers buried the dead in a hastily dug mass grave which was then bull-dozed over by tanks. People living near the university were caught in the fire too, and 200 yards of shanty houses running alongside a railway line were destroyed.

Army patrols also razed nearby market area. Two days later, when it was possible to get out and see all this, some of the market’s stall- owners were still lying as though asleep, their blankets pulled up over their shoulders. In the same district, the Dacca Medical College received direct bazooka fire and a mosque was badly damaged.

As the university came under attack other columns of troops moved in on the Rajarbag Headquarters of the East Pakistan Police, on the other side of the city. Tanks opened fire first, witness said; then the troops moved in and leveled the men’s sleeping quarters, firing incendiary rounds into the buildings. People living opposite did not know how many died there, but out of the 1,100 police based there not many are believed to have escaped.

By 2 O’clock Friday

Fires were burring all over the city, and troops had occupied the university and surrounding areas and were busy killing off students still in hiding. There was still heavy shelling in some areas, but the fighting was beginning to slacken noticeably. Opposite the Intercontinental Hotel Platoon of troops stored the empty office of “The People” newspaper, burning it down along with most houses in the area and killing the night watchman.

City lies silent

Shortly before dawn most firing had stopped, and as the sun came up an eerie silence settled over the city, deserted and completely dead except for noise of the crows and the occasional convoy of troops.

At noon, again without warning, columns of troops poured into the old section of the city where more then 1 million people lived in a sprawling maze of narrow winding streets.

For the next 11 hours, they devastated large areas of the “old town”, as it is called, where Sheikh Mujibur had some of his strongest support in Dacca English Road, French Road, Naya Bazar, City Bazar were burnt to the ground.

They suddenly appeared at the end of the street”, said one old man living in French Naya Bazar area. “Then they drove down it, firing into all the houses.”

The leading unit was followed by soldiers carrying cans of patrol. Those who tried to escape were shot. Those who stayed were burnt alive. About 700 men, women and children died there that day between noon and 2 p.m.

The pattern was repeated in at least three other areas of up to a half square mile or more. Police Stations in the old town were also attacked.

Constables killed

“I am looking for my constables”, a Police Inspector said on Saturday morning as he wondered through the ruins of one of the bazars. “I have 240 in my district, and so far I have only found 30 of them all dead.”

One of the biggest massacres of the entire operation in Dacca took place in the Hindu area of the old town, the soldiers reportedly made the people come out of their houses and shot them in groups. This area too was eventually

razed.

The troops stayed on in force in the old city until about 11 p.m. on the night of Friday, March 26, driving around with local Bengali informers. The soldiers would fire a flare and the informer would point out the houses of Awami League supporters. The house would then be destroyed- either with direct fire from tanks or recoilless rifles or with a can of gasoline, witness said.

One of the last targets was the daily Bengali language paper “Ittefaq”. More than 400 people reportedly had taken shelter in its offices when the fighting started. At 4 o’clock Friday afternoon, four tanks appeared in the road outside. By 4-30 the building was an inferno, witnesses said. By Saturday morning only the charred remains of a lot of corpses huddled in back rooms were left.”

Now let us see what some other foreign journalists said about the atrocities committed by Pakistan Army in 1971.

The New York Times March 28, 1971

By Sydny H. Schanberg

“The Pakistan Army is using artillery and heavy machine guns against unarmed East Pakistani civilians to crush the movement for autonomy in this province of 75 million people.

The attack began late Thursday night without warning. West Pakistani Soldiers, who predominate in the Army, moved into the streets of Dacca, the provincial capital, to besiege the strongholds of the independence movement, such as the University.”

The Washington Post, March 30, 1971

Tragedy in Pakistan

“The Eastern Wing of Pakistan, much the more populous, own national elections last December and began moving peaceably to take over national power. The Western Wing, which has dominated and exploited the East since Moslem Pakistan was carved out of British India in 1947, correctly perceived the threat and rather than surrender power stalled. Talks were begun to see if a constitutional formula could be devised to allow the East autonomy within an all – Pakistan Federation. It is not clear whether the power brokers of West feared that the talks were failing or succeeding at any rate, without notice or armed provocation, last Friday they opened fire with Machine Guns, Recoilless Rifles and Tanks against the largly unarmed or heavily outgunned- citizenry of East Pakistan. Evidently thousands were killed; the number can only be estimated because the government at once imposed censorship and expelled all foreign correspondents confiscating their notes and film.”

The New York Post. Tuesday, March 30, 1971

The Army’s American M 24 Tanks, Artillery and Infantry destroyed large parts of East Pakistan’s largest city and provincial capital.

“The chief targets were the University, the populous old city where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League were strongest, and the industrial areas on the outskirts of the city of 1.5 million people.

Parhaps 7000 persons were killed in the provincial capital alone.

Touring the still burning battle areas Saturday, and Yesterday, one found the burnt bodies of some students still in their dormitory beds. The tanks had made direct hits on the dormitories.”

The New York Times, March 31, 1971

        Editorial

In the name of Pakistan

“Acting ‘in the name of God and a United Pakistan’ forces of the West Pakistan dominated military government of President Yahya Khan have dishonored both by their ruthless crackdown on the Bengali majority seeking a large measure of autonomy for their homeland in the country’s Eastern region.”

The Sun, Baltimore, Sunday April 4, 1971 Pakistan is exterminating the Bangalies.

By John. E. Woodruff “Less than four months ago, the West Pakistan Army said it could not send soldiers and Helicopters to East Bengal to save survivors of the cyclone that took hundreds of thousands of lives in the mouth of the Ganges. If troops and Helicopters were moved from West Pakistan, India might attack, the Army said. By the time the Army statement was issued, India was increasing its offers of relief aid for the cyclone victims.

Today, the same West Pakistan Army shows every sign of being prepared to send its last soldier to more populous East Bengal, if necessary, in an all-out effort to shoot to death the results of December’s elections.”

The Time Magagine, April 5, 1971

“In Dacca Army Tanks and truckloads of troop with fixed bayonets came clattering out of their suburban, shouting ”Victory to Allah” and “Victory to Pakistan” Time correspondent Dan Coggin, who, along with other newsmen, was subsequently expelled from Pakistan reported: Before long, artillery and rocket blasts rocked half a dozen scattered sections of Dacca. Tracers arched over the darkened city. The chatter of automatic weapons was punctuated with grenade explosions, and tall columns of black smoke towered over the city. In the night came the occasional cry of “Joi Bangla” (Victory to Bengal)” followed by a burst of machine gun fire.”

The Time Magazine, April 12, 1971

Pakistan: Round 1 to the West

“There is no doubt” said a foreign diplomat in East Pakistan last week “that the word massacre applies to the situation”. Said another Western official: “It’s a veritable bloodbath. The troops have been utterly merciless.”

The New York Times, April 14, 1971

“The Pakistani military are using Jet fighter-bombers, heavy artillery and gun boats- mostly supplied, by the United States, the Soviet Union and Communist China.”

The Washington Post, May 12, 1971

Suffering Bengalies

“Pakistan continues to act badly towards the citizens of its Eastern wing, whose movement for political autonomus carried on through legal and democratic channels –was cruelly crushed by the Pakistani Army during the sprint.”

The Washington Daily News, June 15,1971

Slaughter in East Pakistan

“Eye witnesses reports, one more ghastly than another, continue to filter out of East Pakistan, telling of the massacre of the Bengali people by the Pakistan Army.

Naturally, the military regime of President Yahya Khan denies it is committing selective genocide. But evidence mounts that it is cold bloodedly murdering minority Hindus, Bengali separatists, intellectuals, doctors, professors, students- in short those who could lead a self governing East Pakistan.”

The New York Times, June 16, 1971

Appalling Castastrophe

“Hiroshima and Nagasaki and vividly rememberid by the minds eye primarily because of the moral means that brought holocaust to those cities. Statically comparable disasters in Humburg and Dresden are more easily forgotten, they were produced by what we already then conceived of a “conventional” methods.

Against this back ground one must view appelling Catastrophe of East Pakistan whose scale is so immense that it exceeds the colorimeter capacity by which human sympathy is measured. No one can hope to count the dead, wounded, missing homeless or sticken whose number grows each days.”

 The Newsweek, June 28, 1971

“The Terrible Blood Bath of Tikka Khan that the Pakistani Army is visiting a cheadful blood bath upon the people of “East Pakistan is also affirmed by newsmen and others who have witnessed the flight of a 6 million terrified refugees into neighbouring India, Newsweek’s Tomy Clifton recently visited India’s refugee- clogged border regious and cabled the following report:

Anyone who goes to the camps and hospitals at along India’s border with Pakistan comes away believing the Punjabi Army capable of any atrocity, I have seen babies who have been shot, men who have had their backs whipped raw. I’ve seen people literally struck dumb by the

horror of seeing their children murdered in front of them or their daughters dragged of into sexual slavery. I have no doubt at all that there have been a hundred “Mylais” and “Lidices” in East Pakistan- and I think, there will be more .................................. Other foreigners too, were dubious about the atrocities at first, but the endless repetition of stories from different sources convinced them. “I am certain that troops have thrown babies into the air and caught them on their Bayonets,” says Briton, John Hastings, a Methodist missionary who have lived in Bengal for twenty years. “I am certain that troops have raped girls repeatedly, then killed them by pushing their Bayonets up between their legs.

All this savagery suggests that the Pakistani Army is either crazed by blood list or, more likely is carrying out a calculated policy amounting to genocide against the whole Bengali population.”

The Guardian, London, March 31, 1971

A Massacre in Pakistan

“Only now are we getting Pakistani facts to abet fears. President Yahya Khan has written to suppress these facts, filling his air wares and press with evasive propaganda, deporting every journalist he could find. But a few independent escaped this net and their stories- just emerging- seek with horror: crows indiscriminately machine gunned, student hostels razed by shells, shanty towns burned and bombed, civilians shot dead in their beds. We do not yet know the fate of those arrested in East or the true level of resistance through the province. But we do know first hand and reliably that many unarmed and unready Bangalies have died.”

The Guardian Weekly, April 4, 1971

   A cry for help

“The situation in Bangladesh is worsening day by day and it is a pathetic and heartrending spectacle, for there is hardly a liberation movement of the twentieth- century that can claim such unanimous support from people of all classes, nor one that was ever so ill- prepared and ill- equipped to fight for its rights.”

The New Statesmen, April 16, 1971

The Blood of Bangladesh

“If blood is the price of a people’s right to independence, Bangladesh has overpaid. Of all the recent struggles to bring down governments and charge frontiers in the name of national freedom the war in East Bengal may prove the bloodiest and breifest.”

The Sunday Times, June 13, 1971 Genocide

By Anthony Mascarenhas

“West Pakistan’s Army has been systematically massacring thousands of civilians in East Pakistan since the end of March. This is the horrifying reality behind the news blackout imposed by President Yahya Khan’s government since the end of March. This is the reason why more than five million refugees have streamed out of East Pakistan into India, risking cholera and famine.

The army has not merely been killing supporters of the idea of Bangladesh, an independent East Bengal. It has deliberately been massacring others. Hindus and Bengali Muslims, Hindus have been shot and beaten to death with elubs simply because they are Hindus. Villages have been burned.”

The Expression, Stockholm, April 12, 1971

Mass murders in Bengal

“Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing from their homes, starvation threatens. The hostilities are directed against the majority of the country’s population under the motivation that the unity of Pakistan must be preserved. The military regime is using violence to sweep aside the result of the country’s first general parliamentary elections. the rulers were not prepared to swallow the consequences of this election; instead they set the military machinery going. It is obvious that this method will never lead to the reunification of East and West Pakistan. Ruthless occupation are drawn out war; these are the only alternatives”.

This is a policy that must be condemned.”

The Djakarta Times, April 15, 1971

Stop this Genocide

“Politicians, teachers, students, doctors, engineers and even unarmed civilians, inducing women and children are wiped out in East Pakistan. Will the Muslim world in general, suffer this? Does Islam permit Killing of unarmed Muslims by armed Muslims? Can Islamic principles justify, the suppression by a minority of a majority demand for social and economic justice.

Muslim states should act quickly and see that good Muslims are not massacred by fellow Muslims.”

The Palaver Weekly. Ghana, July 8, 1971 East Pakistan cry for help

“On March 25, 1971 under cover of darkness, one of the most grusome crimes in the history of mankind was perpetrated by a blood- thirsty military junta against a whole population of seventy five million, constituting the majority of the people of Pakistan.

Many newspapers, reputed for their objectively, have come out with documentary evidence in the form of photographs and eye- witness reports one of the greatest genocide excercises in the annals of man.”

Indonesian Observer, Djakarta, August 30, 1971 Editorial

“Tragedy of unprecedented proportions

The main reason, why events in East Pakistan continue to get a wide press coverage everywhere, is simply because in that part of the world a tragedy of unprecedented proportion is unfolding as a result of the endless flow of refugees into India.”

Those were the few of news items published in the different foreign newspapers regarding genocide committed by Pakistan Army. Not the whole.

In the book “Bangladesh Politics: Problems and Issues”  Dr.  Rawnaq Jahan  added an appendix with caption, “Eye witness accounts” wherein it had been stated:

“The following eye witness accounts of the 1971 genocide depict different incidents. The first two eye witness accounts describe the mass murders committed on March 25 night on Dhaka University campus. The first account is by a survivor of the killings in one of the student dormitories (Jagannath Hall) where Hindu students lived. The second account is by a university Professor who witnessed and video taped the massacres on Dhaka University campus. The third and fourth eye witnesses testimonies describe the mass rape of women by the Pakistanis. The fifth testimony describes the killings in the village of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the nationalist movement. The last account describes the atrocities of the non-Bengali Biharis who collaborated with the Pakistan Army. The testimonies are taken from two sources; one is a Bengali book entitled “1971: Terrible Experiences” (Dhaka: Jatiya Shahitya Prakashoni, 1989), which was edited by Rashid Haider and is a collection of eye witness accounts. Sohela Nazneen translated the accounts from Bengali to English. The other source, “The Year of the Vulture” (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1972), is an Indian journalist’s (Amita Malik) account of the genocide. In the Malik’s book Dhaka is spelled as Dacca, the spelling used in 1972.

MASSACRE AT JAGANNATH HALL

This testimony is from Kali Ranjan Sheel’s “Jagannath Haley Chhilam” [“I was at Jagannath Hall”], in Rashid Haider (ed.), “1971: “Vayabaha Ovigayata” (1971: Terrible Experiences) [Dhaka: Jatiya Shahitya Prakashoni, 1989], p.5. It was translated by Sohela Nazneen. Reprinted with permission.

According to Kali Ranjan Sheel: “I was a student at Dhaka University. I used to live in Room # 235 (South Block) in Jagannath Hall. On the night of 25th of March I woke up from sleep

by the terrifying sound of gunfire. Sometimes the sound of gunfire would be suppressed by the sound of bomb explosions and shellfire. I was so terrified that I could not even think of what I should do ! After a while I thought about going to Shusil, Assistant General Secretary of the Student’s Union. I crawled up the stair very slowly to the third floor . I found out that some students had already taken refuge in Shusil’s room, but he was not there. The students told me to go to the roof of the building where many other students had taken shelter but I decided (rather selfishly) to stay by myself. I crawled to the toilet at the north end of the third floor and took refuge in there. I could see that the soldiers were searching for students with flashlights from room to room and were taking them near the Shahid Minar ( Martyr’s Memorial) and then shooting them. Only the sound of gunfire and pleas of mercy filled the air. The tin sheds in front of the Assembly and some of the rooms in North Block were set on fire .

After some time about forty to fifty soldiers came to the South Block and broke down the door of the dining room. The lights were turned on and they were firing at the students who took shelter in that room .... When the soldiers came out they and Pryanath (the Caretaker of the students dormitory) at gunpoint, and forced him to show the way through all the floors of the dormitory. During this time I was not able to see them as I left the toilet by climbing up the open window and took shelter on the Sunshade of the third floor. But I could hear the cracking sounds of bullets, the students pleading for mercy and the sound  of the soldiers rummaging and throwing things about in search of valuables. The soldiers did not see me on the Sunshade.

After they had left I again took refuge in the washroom. I peeked through the window and saw that the other students’ dormitory, Salimullah Hall, was on fire.... The whole night the Pakistani soldiers continued their massacre and destruction ...... Finally, I heard the call for the Morning Prayer.

The curfew was announced at dawn and I thought that this merciless killing would stop. But it continued. The soldiers started killing those who had escaped their notice during the night before.

It was morning and I heard the voices of some students. I came out of the washroom, and saw the students were carrying a body downstairs while soldiers with machine guns were accompanying them. It was the dead body of  Priyanath. I was ordered to help the students and I complied. We carried bodies from the dormitory rooms and piled them up in the field outside.

There were a few of us. There were students, gardeners, two sons of the gatekeeper and the rest were janitors. The janitors requested the Pakistanis to let them go since they were not Bengalis. After a while the Army separated the janitors from us.

All the time the soldiers were cursing and swearing at us. The soldiers said “We will see how you get free Bangladesh! Why don’t you shout Joy  Bangla (Victory to Bengal)! The soldiers also kicked us around. Downstairs we saw dead bodies piled up, obviously victims from the night before. We were again ordered to carry the dead bodies to the Shahid Minar. The soldiers had already piled up the bodies of their victims and we added other bodies to the piles. If we felt tired and slowed down, the soldiers threatened to kill us.

As my companion and I were carrying the body of Sunil (our dormitory guard), we heard screams in female voices. We found that the women from the nearby slums were screaming as the soldiers were shooting at the janitors (the husbands of the women). I realized that our turn would come too as the Pakistanis started lining up those students who were before us, and were firing at them. My companion and I barely carried the dead body of Sunil toward a pile where I saw the dead body of Dr. Dev (Professor of Philosophy). I cannot explain why I did what I did next. May be from pure fatigue or may be from a desperate hope to survive!

I lay down beside the dead body of Dr. Dev while still holding onto the corpse of Sunil. I kept waiting for the soldiers to shoot me. I even thought that I had died. After a long time I heard women and children crying . I opened my eyes and saw that the Army had left and the dead bodies were still lying about and women were crying.

I crawled towards the slums. First I went to the house of the Electrician. I asked for water but when I asked for shelter, his wife started crying a loud and I then left and took refuge in a toilet ...... Suddenly I heard the voice of Idu who used to sell old books. He said “Don’t be afraid. I heard you are alive. I shall escort you to safety”. I went to old Dhaka City. Then I crossed the river. The boatman did not take any money. From there , I first went to Shimulia, then Nawabganj and finally I reached my village in Barishal in the middle of April.”

HORROR DOCUMENTARY

This testimony is from Amita Malik’s “The Year of the Vulture” (New Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1972, pp 79-83).

At the professors’ funeral, Professor Rafiq- ul-Islam of the Bengali Department whispered to me that at the Television Station you will find that there is a film record of the massacre of professors and students at Jagannath Hall. Ask them to show it to us.”

This sounded so increadible that I did not really believe it. However, I wasted no time in asking Jamil Chowdhury, the Station Manager of TV, whether he did, indeed, have such a film with him. Oh yes, he said, but we have not

shown it yet because it might have dreadful repercussions. He was, of course, referring to the fact that the Pakistani Army was still very much in Dacca in prisoner-of-war camps in the Cantonment, and it would have been dangerous to show them gunning down professors and students at Dacca University. The people of Dacca had shown tremendous restraint so far, but this would have been going a bit too far. However, I had it confirmed that NBC VISNEWS and other international networks had already obtained and projected the film.

But who shot the film? I asked in wonder. A professor at the University of Engineering, who had a video tape, recorded and whose flat overlooks the grounds of Jagannath Hall. Said Mr. Chowdhury . I was therefore by kind courtesy of Dacca TV that I sat in their small projection room on January 5 and saw for the first time what must be a unique ..... film, something for the permanent archives of world history.

The film, lasting about 20 minutes, first shows small distant figures emerging from the Hall carrying the corpses of what must be the students and professors massacred in Jagannath

Hall. These are clearly civilian figures in lighter clothes and, at their back, seen strutting arrogantly even at that distance, are darker clad figures, the hoodlums of the Pakistan Army. The bodies are laid down in neat, orderly rows by those forced to carry them at gunpoint. Then the same procession troops back to the Hall. All this time, with no other sound, one hears innocent bird- song and a lazy cow is seen grazing on university lawns. The same civilians come out again and the pile of bodies grows.

But after the third grisly trip, the action changes. After the corpses are laid on the ground, the people carrying them are lined up. One of them probably has a pathetic inking of what is going to happen. He falls on his knees and clings to the legs of the nearest soldier, obviously pleading for mercy. But there is no mercy. One sees guns being pointed, one hears the crackle of gunfire and the lined up figures fall one by one, like the proverbial house of cards or, if you prefer, puppets in a children’s film. At this stage, the bird songs suddenly stops.  The lazy cow, with calf, careers wildly across the lawn and is joined by a whole herd of cows fleeing in panic.

But the last man is still clinging pathetically to the jackboot of the soldier at the end of the row. The soldier then lifts his shoulder at an angle, so that the gun points almost perpendicularly downwards to the man at

his feet, and shoots him. The pleading hands unlink from the soldier’s legs and another corpse joins the slumped bodies in a row, some piled on top of the very corpsers they had to carry out at gun-point, their own colleagues and friends. The soldiers probe each body with their Rifles or Bayonets to make sure that they are dead. A few who are still wriggling in their death agony are shot twice until they also stop wriggling.

At this stage, there is a gap, because Professor Nurul Ulla’s film probably ran out and he had loaded a new one. But by the time he starts filming again, nothing much has changed except that there is a fresh pile of bodies on the left. No doubt some other students and professors had been forced at gunpoint to carry them out and then were executed in turn. In so far as one can count the bodies, or guess roughly at their number in what is really a continuous longshot amateur film, there are about 50 bodies by this time. And enough, one should think.

Professor Nurul Ullah’s world scoop indicated that he was a remarkable individual who through his presence of mind, the instinctive reaction of a man of science, had succeeded in shooting a film with invaluable documentary evidence regardless of the risk to his life.

I immediately arranged to trace him down and he very kindly asked me to come round to his flat... It was fascinating to sit down in Professor Nurul Ullah’s sitting room and see the film twice with him, the second time after he had shown me the bedroom window at the back of his flat which overlooked both the street along which the soldiers drove to the university and the university campus. When he realized what was happening, he slipped his microphone outside (through) the window to record the sounds of firing. The film was shot from a long distance and under impossible conditions. Professor Nurul Ullah’s description of how he shot the film was as dramatic and stirring as the film itself:

“On March, 25, 1971, the day of the Pakistani crack-down,  although I knew nothing about it at the time, my wife and I had just had breakfast and I was looking out my back windows in the professors’ block of flats in which I and my colleagues from the Engineering University live with our families. Our back windows overlook a street across which are the grounds of Jagannath Hall, one of the most famous Halls of Dacca University. I saw an unusual sight, soldiers driving fast my flat and going along the street which overlooks it, towards the entrance to the University. As the curfew was on, they made announcements on loudspeakers from a jeep that people coming out on the streets would be shot. After a few minutes, I saw some people carrying out what were obviously dead bodies from Jagannath Hall. I immediately took out my loaded video tape recorder and decided to shoot a film through the glass of the window. It was not an ideal way to do it, but I was not sure what it was all about, and what with the curfew and all the tension, we were all being very cautious. As I

started shooting the film, the people carrying out the dead bodies laid them down on the grass under the supervision of Pakistani soldiers who are distinguishable in the film, because of their dark clothes, the weapons they are carrying and the way they are strutting about contrasted with the civilians in lighter clothes who are equally obviously dropping with fright.

As soon as the firing started, I carefully opened the bed room window wide enough for me to slip my small microphone just outside the window so that I could record the sound as well. But it was not very satisfactorily done, as it was very risky.

It so happened that a few days earlier, from the same window I had shot some fottage of student demonstrators, on their way to the university. I little thought it would end this way.

Anyway, this macabre procession of students carrying out bodies and laying them down on the ground was repeated until we realized with horror that the same students were themselves being lined up to be shot. After recording this dreadful sight on my video tape-recorder, I shut it off thinking it was all over only to realize that a fresh batch of university people were again carrying out bodies from inside. By the time I got my video tape-recorder going again, I had missed this new grisly procession but you will notice in the film that the pile of bodies is higher.

I now want to show my film all over the world, because although their faces are not identifiable from that distance in what is my amateur film, one can certainly see the difference between the soldiers and their victims, one can see the shooting and hear it, one can see on film what my wife and I actually saw with our own eyes. And that is documentary evidence of the brutality of the Pak Army and their massacre of the intellectuals.

  OUR MOTHERS AND SISTERS

The following testimony is from M. Akhtaruzzaman Mondol’s “Amader-Ma Bon” (Our Mothers and Sisters) which appears in Rashid Haider(ed.) “1971: Terrible Experiences”. It was translated by Sohela Nazneen, and reprinted with permission.

We started our fight to liberate Vurungamari from the Pakistani occupation forces on November 11, 1971. On November 13 we came near the outskirts of Vurungamari, and the Indian Air Force intensified their air attack. On November 14 morning the guns from the Pakistani side fell silent and we entered Vurungamari with shouts of “Joy Bangla” (Victory to Bangladesh).

But I still did not anticipate the terrible scene I was going to witness as we were heading toward east of Vurungamari to take up our positions. I was informed by wireless to go to the Circle Officer’s office. After we reached the office, we caught glimpses of several young women through the windows of the second floor. After breaking down the door of the room, where the women were kept, we were dumbfounded. We found four naked young women, who had been physically tortured, raped, and battered by the Pakistani soldiers. We immediately came out of the room and threw in four Lungis[dresses] and four bed-sheets for them to cover themselves. We tried to talk to them, but all of them were still in shock. One of them was six to seven- months pregnant. One was a college student from Mymensingh. We found many dead bodies and skeletons in the bushes along the road. Many of

the skeletons had long hair and had on torn Saris and Bangles on their hands. We found sixteen other women locked up in a room at Vurungamari High School. These women were brought in for Pakistani soldiers from nearby villages. We found evidence in the rooms of the Circle Officers office which showed that these women were tied to the window bars and were repeatedly raped by the Pakistani soldiers. The whole floor was covered with blood, torn pieces of clothing and strands of long hair.

THE OFFICER’S WIFE

This testimony is from Amita Malik’s “The Year of the Vulture.”

Another pathetic case is that of a woman of about 25. Her husband was a government officer in a Sub-division and she had three children. They first took away the husband, although she cried and pleaded with them. Then they returned him half-dead, after brutal torture. Then another lot of soldiers came in at 8 or 9 A.M. and raped her in front of her husband and children. They tied up the husband and hit the children when they cried.

Then another lot of soldier came at 2.30 PM and took her away. They kept her in a bunker and used to rape her every night until she became senseless. When she returned after three months, she was pregnant. The villagers were very sympathetic about her but the husband refused to take her back. When the villagers kept pressuring him to take her back, he hanged himself. She is now in an advanced stage of pregnancy and we are doing all that we can do to help her. But she is inconsolable. But why, why did they do it? It would have been better if we had both died.

THE MAULVI’S STORY

This testimony appears in Amita Malik’s The Year of the Vulture.

On April 19, 1971, about 35 soldiers came to our village. A couple of days earlier, I had asked the Sheikh’s father and mother to leave the village, but they refused. They said, ‘This is our home and we shall not go away.’ Soon after a soldier came running and said, Here, Maulvi, stop in which house are the father and mother of the Sheikh? So first I brought out his father. We placed a chair for him but they made him sit on the ground. Then Sheikh Sahib’s Amma [mother] was brought out. She took hold of my hand and I made her sit on the chair. The soldiers then held a Sten gun against the back of the Sheikh’s Abba [father] and a rifle against mine. We will kill you in 10 minutes, said a soldier looking at his watch.

Then they picked up a diary from the Sheikh’s house and some medicine bottles and asked me for the keys of the house. I gave them the bunch of keys but they were so rough in trying to open the locks that the keys would not turn. So they kicked open the trunks. There was nothing much inside except five teaspoon, which they took. They saw a framed photograph and asked me whose it was. When I said it was Sheikh Sahib’s, they took it down. I tried to get up at this stage but they hit me with their rifle butts and I fell down from the chair. Finally, they picked up a very old suitcase and a small wooden box and made a servant carry them to the Launch.

Then they dragged me up to where the Sheikh’s father was sitting and repeated, We shall shoot you in ten minutes. Pointing to the Sheikh’s father. I asked, What’s the point of shooting him? He’s an old man and a government pensioner. The soldiers replied, “Is liye, keonki wohne shatian paida kiya hai” [“Because he has produced a devil.”]. “Why shoot me, the Imam of the Mosque?” I asked, “Aap kiska Imam hai? Aap vote dehtehain” [“What sort of Imam are you? You vote.”], they replied I said: “The party was not banned, we are allowed to vote for it. We are not leaders, we are janasadharan [the masses]. Why don’t you ask the leaders?” The Captain intervened to say that eight minutes were over and we would be shot in another two minutes. Just then a Major came running from the Launch and said we were to be let alone and not shot.

I immediately went towards the Masjid (Mosque) and saw about 50 villagers inside. Three boys had already been dragged out and shot. The soldiers asked me about a boy, who, I said, was a Krishak (cultivator). They looked at the mud on his legs and hands and let him go. Khan Sahib, the Sheikh’s uncle, had a boy servant called Ershad. They asked me about him. I said he was a servant. But a Razakar Maulvi, who had come with them from another village, said he was the Sheikh’s relative, which was a lie. The boy Ershad was taken to the line up. He asked for water but it was refused.

Another young boy had come from Dacca, where he was employed in a Mill, to enquire about his father. He produced his identity card but they shot him all the same. They shot Ershad right in front of his mother. Ershad moved a little after falling down so they shot him again. Finally, the boy who had carried the boxes to the Launch was shot. With the three

shot earlier, a total of six innocent boys were shot by the Pakistani Army without any provocation. They were all good looking and therefore suspected to be relatives of the Sheikh.

After this, the Sheikh’s father and mother were brought out of the house. Amma was almost fainting. And the house was set on fire and burnt down in front of our eyes until all that remained was the frame of the doorway which you can still see. Altonissa, the lady with the bloodstained clothes of her son, is the mother of Torab Yad Ali who was shot. They did not allow her to remove her son’s body for burial, because they wanted the bodies to be exposed to public view to terrorize the villagers. They also shot Mithu, the 10-year old son of this widowed lady.

Shaheeda Sheikh, Sheikh Mujib’s niece, then added that fortunately all the women were taken away to safety across the river to a neighboring village three days before the Pakistani soldiers came. For months they had lived in constant terror of Razakars pouncing on them from bushes by the village pond. Beli Begum,  Mujib’s niece, a strikingly lovely women, told me how she had fled from the village when seven months pregnant and walked 25 miles to safety. Pari, a girl cousin, escaped with a temperature of 104 degrees. Otherwise, they would all have been killed.

MASSACRE AT FAIZ LAKE

This testimony is from Abdul Gofran’s “Faiz Lake-Gonohataya (Massacre at Faiz Lake), which first appeared in Rashid Haider (ed.), “1971: Terrible Experiences”. Sohela Nazneen translated it and reproduced herewith :

I own a shop near Akbar Shah Mosque in Pahartali. On November 10, 1971, at 6 a.m. about forty to fifty Biharis came to my shop and forced me to accompany them. I had to comply as any form of resistance would have been useless against such a large number of people.

They took me to Faiz Lake. As we passed through the gates of Faiz Lake, I saw hundreds of non-Bengalis had assembled near the Pump- house and wireless colony. The Bengalis who had been brought in were tied up. They were huddling by the side of the lake which was at the North of the Pump-house. Many of the Biharis were carrying knives, swords and other sharp instruments. The Biharis were taking at a time and were beating them up brutally and were shoving their victims towards those carrying weapons. These other Biharis were jabbing their victims in the stomach and were severing their heads with the swords. I witnessed several groups of Bengalis being killed in such manner. When the Biharis came for me I punched one of them and jumped into the lake. I swam to the other side and hide among the bushes. The Biharis came to look for me but I was fortunate and bearly escaped their notice. From my hiding place I witness the mass murder that was taking place. Many Bengalis were killed in the manner which had been described earlier.

The genocide went on till about two O’clock in the afternoon. After they had disposed of the last Bengali victim Biharis brought in a group of ten to twelve Bengali men. It was evident from their gestures that they were asking the Bengalis to dig a grave for the bodies lying about. I also understood from their gestures that the Biharis were promising the group that if they completed the task they would be allowed to go free. The group complied with their wish. After the group had finished burying the bodies they were also killed, and the Biharis went away, rejoicing.”

The real pictures of Bangladesh have been reflected in a lyrical anthem, ‘September on Jessore Road’ written by the Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg:

“Millions of fathers in rain

Millions of mothers in pain

Millions of brother in woe

Millions of sisters nowhere to go

One Million aunts are dying for bread

One Million uncles lamenting the dead Grandfather millions homeless and sad

Grandmother millions silently mad Millions of daughters walk in the mud

Millions of children wash in the flood

A Million girls vomit & groan

Millions of families hopeless alone

Millions of souls nineteen seventy one Homeless on Jessore road under grey sun

A million are dead, the million who can

Walk toward Calcutta from East Pakistan” There is no doubt that this was probably

the greatest and most horrible crime committed in the whole history of the world. Beating, starvation, torture and killing were general.

Mr. Bruce Dauglas- Mann, M.P. British Parliament on 14.05.1971 made a statement saying, “Time and again we were told the same story: Troops of the west Pakistan millitary authorities had entered the village, which had not then been defended, had shot the men in the fields and killed the women and children and then, having killed a great number of people from the village, had burnt it down and left.”

The Guardian in its May 27, 1971 Issue described, “Villages have been surrounded, at any time of day or night, and the frightened villagers have fled where they could, or been slaughtered where they have been found, or enticed out to the fields and mown down in heaps. Women have been raped, girls carried off to barracks, unarmed peasants battered or bayoneted by the thousands.” Sir Arther Bottomlay, a British M.P. in a statement said, “This had been the most horrowing mission he had undertaken in his entire public life.” News release- issued by the Labour Information Department of United Kingdom on 08.07.1971 stating, “Conference expresses its horror and concern at the terrible human tragedy now taking place in Bengal. It believes that the Pakistan Government must take full responsibility for the terrible suffering endured by the people of East Bengal and conference condemns of Government of Pakistan for its totally unjustified use of military force against the people and democratically elected leaders of East Bengal.” It added, ”The Pakistan crisis is the worst disaster that has faced the world for the past 30 years. It is also morally the most simple. The villains, those Pakistani Generals who ordered a military attack on their own countrymen last 25th, are more obviously in the wrong than military aggressors since Hitler war.” Senator Edward Kennedy in a statement said, “This stark

From the aforesaid news items, statements, press releases and articles we are satisfied that it was widespread and systematic attacks against civilian population of Bangladesh. The genocide perpetrated in Bangladesh is a fact of common knowledge. The Tribunal has taken notice of the fact that widespread killings occurred in Bangladesh from March 25, 1971 to December 16, 1971. The most brutal armed anticivilian state machinery in modern times, taking help of auxiliary forces and local collaborators committed such genocide. It was the brutality which had ever been witnessed by the people of the globe. They made the whole Bangladesh a reign of terror unprecended in human history.

It was the most gruesome crimes in the history of the world perpetrated by blood thirsty Pak Army and its Para-militia Bahini against whole population of Bangladesh.

Let us see the sentiments of some Pakistani Generals, Politicians, Journalists and the persons, who were in power in 1971, regarding activities of Pakistani Administrators, Armies and Politicians in 1971.

Dr. G.W. Choudhury, who served as a member of Pakistan cabinet and member of the three man committee set up by Yahya Khan in his book, “The Last Days of United Pakistan” categorically admitted the atrocities committed by Pak Army in Bangladesh with the following words, “But one thing is certain, the Pakistan Army’s actions, which began on the midnight of March 25, 1971, can never be condoned or justified in any way, the Army’s murderous campaign in which many thousands of innocent people including women, the old and sick, and even children, were brutally murdered while millions fled from their homes to take shelter either in remote places or in India, constituted a measureless tragedy. The miscalculation on which it was based is beyond understanding, just as the result in human suffering were beyond description.”

In 1998, Muntassir Mamun, a Bangladeshi Professor and Historian took interviews of some Pakistani Generals, who were the players of drama in 1971, some politicians, journalists and other Pakistanis. He published and edited two books (1) “−pC ph f¡¢LÙ¹¡e£” and another is (2) “f¡¢LÙ¹¡e£−cl cª¢ø−a HL¡šl”z We are quoting some portions

to assess their sentiments about their activities in 1971.

The then G.O.C. of Pakistan Eastern Command Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan Neazi:

ÒAv”Qv, Gwcªj †_‡K wW‡m¤^‡ii g‡a¨ KZ †jvK gviv †M‡Q e‡j Avcbvi aviYv?

ÒAvgv‡`i g‡Z AvbygvwbK wÎk nvRviÓ ej‡jb wbqvRx, Òwn›`yiv A‡b‡K cvwj‡q‡Q, gviv †M‡Q, Avi gyw³ evwnbxi nZvn‡Zi msL¨v Zvi †P‡qI †ekx|Ó

ÒAmvgwiK †jvKR‡bi †¶‡Î?

ÒwU°v Lvb †h iv‡Z G¨vKk‡bi Av‡`k †`b †m iv‡Z cÂvk nvRvi †jvK gviv

hvq|Ó

Ò14 wW‡m¤^i, XvKvq eyw×wRex‡`i nZ¨v Kiv nq, Gi Rb¨ `vqx Kviv? ivI digvb

`vwe K‡i‡Qb †h, G m‡ei †Kvb wKQyi m‡½ wZwb RwoZ bb|Ó

Òeyw×Rxexiv Avgvi Kv‡Q †Kvb welq bqÓ ej‡jb wbqvRx, ÒAvgvi gv_v e¨v_v A¯¿avix `ykgb‡`i wb‡q| Z‡e, AvjZvd MIni e‡j‡Qb †h, wZwb `ywU bvg ZvwjKv †_‡K ev` †`Iqvi Rb¨ digv‡bi Kv‡Q GK eÜz‡K cvwV‡qwQ‡jb| digvb †m Aby‡iva i¶v K‡i ‡mB ZvwjKv †_‡K bvg `ywU †K‡U †`b|Ó

Zvn‡j ivI digvb wQ‡jb Gi wc‡Q?

Ò_vK‡ZI cv‡i |Ó

Avj kvgm, Avj e`i bvwK Avcbvi m„wó?

Òn¨vu , GB cªwµqvUv AvwgB ïi“ Kwi †g gvm †_‡K| Iiv mivmwi Avgvi Kgv‡ÛB wQj| -------- Avwg Gme Avj e`i I Avj  kvgm‡`i wewfbœ †mbv wWwfk‡b wb‡qvM KiZvg| †mbv wWwfkb ¸‡jv Zv‡`i Kv‡R jvMvZ- †mwU Ab¨ K_v| Gme Avj e`i I

Avj kvgm A‡b‡K `jQyU n‡q cvwj‡q wM‡q ZLb GUv - IUv K‡i‡Q| Zv‡`i‡K GKUv agx©q eva¨evaKZvi g‡a¨ wb‡qvM Kiv nq| Zv‡`i‡K e¨enviI Kiv nq †mfv‡e| Ó

General Shahebjada Yakub Khan

Ò‡`‡Lb evsjv‡`‡k †h GZeo GKUv gg©vwš K— NUbv N‡U‡Q GLv‡bi †jvK Zv Rv‡bI bv Ges

Rvb‡jI †eva nq wek¡vm K‡i bv|Ó

Ò‡Rbv‡ij BqvKze nVvr Av‡eMvµvš— n‡q †M‡jb| GZB Av‡eMvµvš— †h, Zvui †PvL cªvq mRj n‡q Gj| fv½v fv½v ¯^‡i Avcb g‡b gš e— ¨ Ki‡jb, me †`‡k gvbyl †kl Avkªq wn‡m‡e †mbvevwnbxi Kv‡Q hvq| Avi c~e© cvwK¯ v— ‡b †mbvevwnbx †`‡L gvbyl cvwj‡q †M‡Q| bv, Avwg wKQy ej‡Z PvB bv|Ó

Professor Ahmed Hasan Dani- Historian.

Ò- ev½vjx‡`i wK cvwK¯ v— bxiv gvbyl g‡b K‡i‡Q?

-    XvKvq _vKvi mgq fveZvg, ev½vjxiv wKfv‡e Gme cwðgv Awdmv‡ii Lvivc

e¨envi mn¨ K‡i ?

ÒcvwK¯ v— bx Avgjv‡`i gvbweKZv wQj bv| K‡qKw`b Av‡MI G wel‡q Avwg GKwU cªeÜ wj‡LwQjvg, cwÎKv Zv Qv‡cwb| †kL gywRe b¨vq wePvi, mvg¨ I gvbweK AvPiY †P‡qwQ‡jb| wbe©vP‡b wZwb msL¨vMwiôZv †c‡q‡Qb| Zvu‡K ¶gZv †`qv n‡e bv †Kb? gywRe ev½vjx‡`i mg¥vb wdwi‡q  w`‡qwQ‡jb| msL¨vMwiôZvi AwaKvi wQwb‡q Avb‡Z mdj n‡qwQ‡jb| Ó

Altaf Gawhar, former Information Secretary of Pakistan:

Ò fz‡Æv wK †kL gywR‡ei m‡½ `iKlvKwl Ki‡Z †P‡qwQ‡jb?

ÒAvgvi g‡b nq bv, fz‡Æv hv Pvbwb Zv n‡jv Bqvwnqv I †kL gywRe †Kvb mg‡SvZvq †cŠQvb| wZwb †P‡q wQ‡jb mvgwiK G¨vKkb Ges cwiKwíZfv‡eB Zv Kiv

n‡q‡Q |

------ AvBqye Lv‡bi m‡½ hLb Avgvi †kl †`Lv nq ZLb wZwb e‡jwQ‡jb, Iiv KvbvMwji †MvjK avavq Xz‡K‡Q, GLb Avi Zv‡`i cwiÎv‡bi †Kvb Avkv ‡bB|

Òdigvb e‡j‡Qb, 14 wW‡m¤^i eyw×Rxex nZ¨v m¤ú‡K© I wKQy Rvb‡Zb bvÓ|

ÒZ‡e ïbyb GKwU NUbv, H mgq Lei †cjvg, Avgv‡`i GK ev½vjx eÜz‡K bvwK nZ¨vi ZvwjKvq ivLv n‡q‡Q| Zvu‡K evuPv‡Z n‡e| Avwg GKRb‡K wPbZvg whwb Avevi digvb‡K wPb‡Zb| Zvu‡K Aby‡iva Kijvg wKQy GKUv Ki‡Z| wZwb XvKvq digv‡bi m‡½ †`Lv K‡i Aby‡iva Rvbv‡jb| digvb ZLb Wªqvi †_‡K GKwU ZvwjKv †ei K‡i Zvui bvgwU †K‡U †`q| H ev½vjx wQ‡jb mvbvDj nK| Ó

Rowadad Khan, former Information Secretary and Managing Director of PTv.

ÒGici GKw`b wcwÛ‡Z B›UviK‡b †`Lv fz‡Ævi m‡½| Zvui gyW Lye Lvivc| ej‡jb, Bnvwnqv b¨vkbvj G¨v‡m¤^wji †WU wd· K‡i‡Q Avgv‡ bv Rvwb‡q| Avwg cªwZwbwaZ¡ KiwQ cwðg cvwK¯ v— ‡bi | Avwg XvKvq hve †Kb? Bqvwnq i DwPZ G¨v‡mw¤^wji †WU †PÄ Kiv|

wKfv‡e Zv †PÄ Kiv n‡e? Rvb‡Z PvBjvg Avwg| Gev‡i fz‡Æv ej‡jb,

†Kb, AvBb k„•Ljvi AebwZ NwU‡q| `iKvi n‡j e›`yK PvjvI| GKUv bv GKUv ARynvZ †Zv cvIqv hv‡eB| Ó

Major General Rao Forman Ali

ÒjviKvbvq Bqvwnqv fz‡Æv wK mg‡SvZv n‡qwQj Avcwb Rv‡bb?           

Òbv , jviKvbv m¤ú‡K© wKQy Rvwb bv| ‡Rbv‡ij Dgi wQ‡U‡dvUv LvwbKUv e‡jwQ‡jb, Rvbv‡jb digvb, jviKvbvq fz‡Æv Bqvwnqv‡K e‡jwQ‡jb, Avcwb †Zv gywRe‡K cªavbgš¿x evwb‡q‡Qb| KviY Gi Av‡M Bqvwnqv e‡jwQ‡jb, gywReB n‡eb cªavbgš¿x| fz‡Æv ej‡jb,

gywR‡ei †`k‡cªg hvPvB K‡Z n‡e| c wª µqvUv n‡e G iKg| RvZxq cwil‡`i Awa‡ekb

¯’wMZ Ki‡Z n‡e| gywRe hw` Zvi cªwZev` K‡ib Zvn‡j cªgvwYZ n‡e wZwb †`k‡cªgx bb|

fz‡Æv wb‡R cªavbgš¿x n‡Z Pvw”Q‡jb, A_P ‡`k GKUv -------- fz‡Æv wb‡Ri `j‡K evuPvevi

Rb¨ AvµgYvZ¥K f~wgKv wb‡qwQ‡jb Ges KvR Ki‡Z wM‡q wZwb evovevwo K‡i †d‡jwQ‡jb, e‡jwQ‡jb, ÒBavi nvg, Davi ZzgÓ| ------------

ejv n‡q _v‡K Avcwb ivRvKvi evwnbx M‡owQ‡jb ?

-bv, Avgvi g‡b nq gvk©vj m`i `dZi Zv MVb K‡iwQj|

AvBwWqvUv Kvi ?

-‡Kvm© KgvÛv‡ii|

- wZwb †K

wbqvRx| wZwbB, (Avj) kvgm I (Avj) e`‡ii, mªóv| Ó

Major General Ghulam Omer:

ÒevOvjx‡`i Avgiv †nq †Pv‡L †`LZvg, wb‡R‡`i ejZvg gvk©vj RvwZ- wKš‘

c„w_ex‡Z gvk©vj RvwZ e‡j wKQy †bB|

-wbqvRx jyU K‡i‡Q, †mvbv cvPvi K‡i‡Q| Zvi PwiÎI Lvivc|

-    jviKvbv hvIqvi c~e© ch©š— Bqvwnqv †P‡qwQ‡jb gywRe c«vBg wgwbóvi

n‡eb| wKš‘ Zvici me e`‡j †Mj| Ó

Kamar-ul-Islam-

-Former Secretary, Planning Commission:

Ò‡cªwm‡W›U B‡jKk‡b dv‡Zgv wRbœvn c~e© cvwK¯ v— ‡b †ekx †fvU

†c‡qwQ‡jb| AvBqye Lvb, Kvjvev‡Mi Avgvxi I Gg, Gg Avng` g‡b

Ki‡Zb, c~e© cvwK¯ v— ‡bi Avi `iKvi †bB cwðg cvwK¯ v— ‡bi ------------- ZvB Zuviv e‡jwQ‡jb, c~e© cvwK¯ v— b‡K Avi †Kvb ivR‰bwZK Qvo †`qv n‡e bv|

-cwðg cvwK¯ v— ‡bi hviv †mbvevwnbx‡Z wQj Ges wmwfj mvwf©‡m G‡mwQj, ZvivI c~e© cwK¯ v— b‡K Lv‡Uv K‡i †`LZ| wb‡R‡`‡i mywcwiqi fveZ| Ó

M.V. Nakvi

Journalist

Ò‡PŠayix †gvnvg¥` Avjx ZLb A_©gš¿x| wZwb Avgvi eÜz bwRDj−vn‡K e‡jwQ‡jb, c~e© evsjvq †Kb wkí Moe? It is bound to go away. We will

keep the industry in West Pakistan. GUv 1955 mv‡ji NUbv| Ó

Brigadiar A.R. Siddique-

-Director, Public Relations

 Dept. of Army in 1971

Ò wK n‡qwQj 25‡k gvP©?

25 gvP© iv‡Z †`Ljvg, Òw` wccjÓ Awdm R¡vwj‡q †`qv n‡q‡Q| ---- iv¯ v— Nv‡U 26 gvP© jvk c‡owQj| Kvdz© Zz‡j †bevi ci †jvKRb cvjvw”Qj kni †_‡K|

-- digvb BR `¨v g¨vb †h nqZ eyw×Rxwe nZ¨vi e¨vcvi RvbZ| I never trusted him. He always weared a mask, ruthless.

 Avi fz‡Æv ?

wZwb Pvw”Q‡jb ïay ¶gZv Avi ¶gZv|Avi †Kvb †eva wQj bv Zvui| Avwg©i mg_©b wQj Zvui cªwZ| Avwg© wQj cwðg cvwK¯ v— ‡bi c‡¶ Avi fz‡Æv wQ‡jb Zv‡`i gyLgvÎ| d¨v›UvwóK me Kvwnbx ej‡Zb wZwb- U¨vsK wb‡q wZwb jo‡eb BZ¨vw`| He was a

disaster per excellence . Ó

Air Marshal (Rtd.) Asghor Khan, former

Chief of Pakistan Air Force said in his interview:

Ò ---- Avgvi g‡b n‡qwQj hv wKQy N‡U‡Q Zv GKvš B— †Mvq uvZz©wg Qvov wKQyB bq|

Px‡bi wek¡vm wQj Avgiv Ggb GK e¨w³i kvm‡b AvwQ hvi gv_vq †Mvei fiv, Ac`v_© GK KvÛÁvbnxb e`gvm, GgbwK †Kvb †Kvb †¶‡Î GKUv bicïI e‡U| GLv‡b

¶gZvq hviv wQj Zv‡`i wKš‘ ev¯ e— Zvi Dcjwä †`evi Rb¨ Avwg Avgvi h_vmva¨ K‡iwQ| wKš‘ wb‡iU M`©‡fi g‡Zv Iiv me wKQy †j‡R †Mve‡i K‡i †d‡j| Z‡e Zv‡`i fveLvbv

wQj GB ‡h, 25 eQi a‡i †h c~e© cvwK¯ v— b KLbI ¶gZvi Ae¯nv‡b wQj bv, †mB c~e© cvwK¯ v— b I †kL gywRei ingvb †Kgb K‡i cwðg cvwK¯ v— b‡K kvmb Ki‡e Zv †evaMg¨ bq|

G‡`i GB g‡bvfve eoB wewPÎ| †`‡ki RbmsL¨vMwiô c~e e©‡½i ev½vjx Z_v c~e© cvwK¯—

vb‡K kvmb Ki‡Z †`Iqv n‡”Q bv - -- welqwU weeªZKi| wKš‘ Iiv Zv‡`i gbm‡Z¡i

we‡kl MV‡bi Kvi‡Y ev½vjxi kvmb †g‡b wb‡Z cv‡iwb| Ó

“G‡¶‡Î fz‡Ævi GK weivU fzwgKv i‡q‡Q| wZwb cªKvk¨ Rbmfvq e‡jb †h, wZwb msm‡` we‡ivax `‡ji Avm‡b em‡Z cª¯ Z— bb| Avwg g‡b Kwi, wZw wKQyUv MYZš¿ mg¥Z AvPiY Ki‡j I msL¨vMwiô `‡ji Kv‡Q ¶gZv n¯ v— š ‡— i mg¥Z n‡j cwiw¯’wZ Gov‡bv m¤¢e n‡Zv| wKš y — wZwb Zv K‡ib wb, Kivi g‡bvfve wQj bv| BqvwnqvI wQ‡jb ¶gZv AvuK‡o| G `y‡qi mw¤^wjZ Kvi‡YB hv wQj Awbevh© Zv N‡U hvq| Ó

Faruque Ahmmed Leghari, former President of Pakistan:

Ò cwðg cvwK¯ v— ‡bi eû wbi‡c¶ gvbylB ¯^xKvi K‡ib †h, Dbœqb ev Dbœq‡bi mydj c~e© cvwK¯ v— ‡bi RbM‡Yi Kv‡Q †cuŠQvqwb| A_P Zv nIqv DwPZ wQj| Ó

In Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report it

was, inter alia, stated:

“It is, however, clear that final and overall responsibility must rest on General Yahya Khan, Lt. Gen Pirazada, Maj. Gen. Umar, Lt.Gen. Mitha. It has been brought out in evidence that Maj. Gen. Mitha was particularly active in East Pakistan in the days preceding the military action of the 25th March 1971, and even the other Generals just mentioned were present in Dacca along with Yahya Khan, and secretly departed there on the evening of that fateful day after fixing the deadline for the military action. Maj.Gen. Mitha is said to have remained behind. There is also evidence that Lt. Gen. Tikka Khan, Major Gen. Farman Ali and Maj. Gen. Khadim Hussain were associated with planning of the military action.

At the same time there is some evidence to suggest that the words and personal actions of Lt. Gen. Niazi were calculated to encourage the killings and rape”

G.W. Choudhury in his book stated, “But could there be any justification or rationale for the killing of thousands of innocent villagers who had not the slightest idea of the issues involved in the political dialogues, either before or after the elections in December 1971? These people had neither wanted secession or been a party to any conspiracy. Why were children killed in presence of their parents and women raped in presence of fathers or husbands? Villages were burnt wholesale by the military Governor, Tikka Khan “butcher of the Bengalies” and destroyer of Pakistan. The most pertinent question is whether the Pakistan Army would have taken such cruel measures in West Pakistan if Bhutto had taken the same position as Mujib on March 23, 1971. Had not Bhutto been largely responsible for the deadlock in the political negotiations after the election by forcing the adjournment of the National Assembly scheduled to meet on March 3, 1971? Why then did Bhutto’s action remain unpunished?” He added, “I returned from Dacca bewildered and with a heavy heart. I wrote a lengthy report giving authentic accounts of many cruel acts of the Army including the raping of women.” He met Yahya Khan who questioned what he had seen in Dacca. He said, “My prompt reply was that no single foreign newspaper had exaggerated. On the contrary, the people’s agony, suffering and humiliation had not been fully exposed. I also told him that it

Those are part pictures of thousands incidents and admissions of the then Army Generals, leaders, policy makers and intellectuals of Pakistan. According to all available evidence and report, the genocide which was deliberately planned and executed ruthlessly by the Pakistani Army, their collaborators and para-militia Bahini like Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams, had been marked, amongst other unspeakable atrocities, by the systematic decimation of Bangladeshi intellectuals and professionals, including eminent professors, lawyers, journalists, doctors, students etc. The sanguinary suppression by the Pakistani Rulers of the basic rights and the clearly expressed will of the people of Bangladesh, ruthless terror against millions of people, was an overt violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Entire world raised voice against

those barbaric atrocities by the Pak Army with

the assistance and collaboration of the local para-military forces, i.e. Razakars, Al-Badr

and Al-Shams. They were involved in mass killing and those were widespread and systematic against civilian population.

However, the facts of common knowledge does

not relieve the prosecution of its burden to

prove that the appellant was criminally responsible for specific events alleged in the indictment. The allegation against the appellant is that he was the leader of Al Badar

Bahini and one of the responsible men who committed genocide.

Now let us see what are the charges against

the convict appellant. What he did when the

entire nation was fighting against genocide.        “The News Week”, June 28, 1971 issue expressed

the situation in Bangladesh under caption “The Terrible Blood Bath of Tikka Khan” and narrated, “I have no doubt at all that there

have been a hundred Mylais and Lidices in East Pakistan and I think, there will be more”.

What the appellant did when the politician, teachers, students, doctors, engineers and unarmed civilians, who were appellant’s closers than those of the Pakistani military junta, were wiped out.

Charge No.6

Contents of charge No.6 were that during the War of Liberation in 1971 the occupation Pakistani Army set up a camp at Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute, Dhaka. The members of Razakar and Al-Badr Bahini used to receive their “training” at that camp known as “torture camp”. Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid (the convict appellant) being the Secretary of the then East Pakistan Islami Chatra Sangha and subsequently the head of Al-Badr Bahini or as member of individuals used to visit the camp regularly with his co-leaders with an intent to annihilate the “Bangalee Population”, used to design planning and conspired with the senior Army Officers at the camp and following such conspiracy and planning, “intellectuals killing” was started from 10 December and thereby accused Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid has been charged for abetting and facilitating the commission of offence of ‘murder as crime against humanity’ by his conduct which was a part of planned attack against the civilian population as specified in section 3(2)(a)(g) of the ICT Act or in the alternative, for abetting and facilitating, the commission of offence of ‘genocide’ committed targeting the ‘intellectual group’ with an intent to destroy it either whole or in part as specified in section 3(2)(c)(g) of the ICT Act which are punishable under section 20(2) read with section 3(1) of the ICT Act for which the accused has incurred liability under section

4(1) and 4(2) of the said Act.

Mr. S.M. Shahjahan, learned Counsel for the appellant, submits that the prosecution has hopelessly failed to prove that the appellant was any way connected with the charge of intellectuals killings. The learned Attorney General replied that the appellant led, planned, aided, instigated, abetted and facilitated the killings of intellectuals as charged. The prosecution has been able to prove this charge by adducing both oral and documentary evidence beyond all reasonable doubt.

Before taking into consideration of the evidence it is relevant here to reproduce the provisions of rules of evidence provided in the ICT Act and Rules relevant in this regard.

Section 19 of the ICT Act is the relevant laws regarding the evidence which runs as follows:

“       19(1). A Tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence; and it shall adopt and apply to the greatest possible extent expeditious and non-technical procedure, and may admit any evidence, including reports and photographs published in newspaper, periodicals and magazines, films and tape-recordings and other materials as may be tendered before it, which it deems to have probative value.

(2).      A Tribunal may receive in evidence any statement recorded by a Magistrate or an Investigation Officer being a statement made by any person who, at the time of the trial, is dead or whose attendance cannot be procured without an amount of delay or expense which the Tribunal considers unreasonable.

(3).      A Tribunal shall not require proof of facts of common knowledge but shall take judicial notice thereof.

(4).      A Tribunal shall take judicial notice of official governmental documents and reports of the United Nations and its subsidiary agencies or other international bodies including non-governmental organizations.”

The relevant provision as to evidence provided in the International Crimes Tribunal Rules of Procedure, 2010 (ICTRP) are as follows: “40. Whenever the Tribunal considers that the production of any document or other thing is necessary or desirable for the purpose of investigation or trial or other proceedings under the Act, the Tribunal may issue a summons, or an order to the person in whose possession or power such document or thing is believed to be requiring him to attend and produce it at the time, place and date stated in the summons or order. 44. The Tribunal shall be at liberty to admit

any evidence oral or documentary, print or electronic including books, reports and photographs published in news papers, periodicals, and magazines, films and tape recording and other materials as may be tendered before it and it may exclude any evidence which does not inspire any confidence in it, and admission or non-admission of evidence by the Tribunal is final and cannot be challenged. 47. Prior to testifying before the Tribunal, every witness shall swear an oath or make an affirmation in Form 12 of the Schedule. 50. The burden of proving the charge shall lie upon the prosecution. 51(1). The onus of proof as to the plea of ‘alibi’ or to any particular fact or information which is in the possession or knowledge of the defence shall be upon the defence.

(2) The defence shall also prove the documents and materials to be produced by them in accordance with the provisions of section 9(5) of the Act.

55. Once the document is marked as exhibit, the contents of a document shall be admissible. 56(1). The Tribunal shall give due weight to the primary and secondary evidence and direct and circumstantial evidence of any fact as the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case demands having regard to the time and place of the occurrence.

(2). The Tribunal shall also accord in its discretion due consideration to both hearsay and non-hearsay evidence, and the reliability and probative value in respect of hearsay evidence shall be assessed and weighed separately at the end of the trial.

57. The Tribunal shall apply these Rules which will best favour a fair determination of the matter in issue before it and are consonant with the spirit of the Act. 58(1). Evidence that is produced by the prosecution or the defence shall be suitably identified, proved by the respective party and marked with consecutive numbers as exhibits.”

The prosecution examined in total 17 witnesses and produced some documentary evidences. The defence examined one witness and produced some documents.

To prove charge No.6 the prosecution adduced the following evidence:

P.W.1 Shahriar Kabir in his evidence said that Jamat-e-Islami is a cadre based disciplined political party. He came to know about the activities of Islami Chatra Sangha (ICS), which was the student organization of Jamat-e-Islami, from Newspapers in 1971. He described how ICS was emarged as Al Badr bahini in his documentary “War Crime, 1971”. He narrated the activities of Bader bahini in the book “71 Gi NvZK I `vjvjiv †K †Kv_vq” | He collected a copy of book named “Al-Badr” written by Selim Mansur Khaled from Pakistan. That book is a documentary history of the activities of Al- Badr Bahini published by Jamat-e-Islami, Pakistan. Writer of the said book is a researcher of Jamat-e-Islami who came in Bangladesh several times for his research works and talked with the members of Al-Badr Bahini. This witness came to know about the involvement of the members of Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams Bahini in their pre-planned genocide committed in 1971 from the “Daily Sangram”, a Jamat owned newspaper and different articles written by Jamat supporters writers. At that time appellant Mujahid was president of ICS of East Pakistan. Al-Badr Bahini was half secret organization like Gestapo Bahini of Hitler. He added that it could be said conclusively from the book written by Salim Monsur Khaled and other informations that ICS was emarged as Al- Badr Bahini. Al-Badr Bahini committed heinous offence of killings of intellectuals in pre- planned way. From November 16, 1971 to December 15, 1971 they killed thousands of intellectuals and professionals. In the killing lists there were University teachers, journalists, writers, doctors, engineers and lawyers. Professor Munir Chowdhury, Professor Anwar Pasha, Professor Mufazzel Haider Chowdhury and Shahidulla Kaiser were killed along with other intellectuals. Shahidullah Kaiser was the cousin of this witness. His another cousin producer Zahir Raihan went to rescue Shahidullah Kaiser on 30th January, 1972, at Mirpur, Dhaka where more than one hundred members of Muktibahini including Zahir Raihan were killed. After 16th December