Ashraf headed Al-Badr torture camp

A former Jamalpur lawmaker yesterday in a war crimes case against the district's eight alleged Al-Badr Bahini men testified that one accused, Ashraf Hossain, was the chief of an Al-Badr torture camp during the 1971 Liberation War.

Three more accused, Abdul Mannan, Abdul Bari and Abdul Hashem, were among 70 Al-Badr men affiliated with the camp, Shafiqul Islam Khoka told International Crimes Tribunal-1 as the 20th prosecution witness.

Of the remaining four accused, he said SM Yusuf was an Al-Badr organiser while Prof Sharif Ahammed and Shamsul Haque were involved with a Peace Committee, an anti-liberation organisation.

Elected lawmaker from Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League or BKSAL in 1986, the 68-year-old, however, did not mention the name of the last accused, Harun. Yusuf and Shamsul are in jail while the rest on the run. They face five charges.

The Pakistani occupation army entered Jamalpur on April 22, 1971 and, in association with Al-Badr and a 50-member Peace Committee, committed crimes like genocide, said Shafiqul.

He said the Pakistani army set up a torture camp at Jamalpur's Primary Training Institute (PTI) while the Al-Badr camp was at Ashek Mahmud College's hostel for students of degree courses.

Al-Badr men led by Ashraf and the Pakistani army men tortured numerous people at the PTI camp including the then deputy leader in parliament Abdul Hamid Mokhter, Prof Imamur Rashid, Saidur Rahman Sadu, Rezaul Karim Chowdhury and Haider Chairman, said Shafiqul.

He said they tortured to death one Majnur of Kalibari village and shot dead Hamid Mokhter near the Jamalpur cremation grounds.

One Saidur Rahman survived jumping into the Brahmaputra river while two others, Rezaul Karim and Imamur Rashid, were released following the recommendation of Peace Committee members Yusuf and Shamsul, he added.

Haider Chairman was released but later killed along with one of his brothers by the Ashraf-led Al-Badr men, who also tortured to death the then Jamalpur sub-division Chhatra League General Secretary Halim, said Khoka.

Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami, its student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha, Nezam-e-Islami, Muslim League, Razakar Bahini and Al-Shams were also involved in those, he said.

As a freedom fighter, he had an idea about the movements of the Pakistani army and their local collaborators, said Shafiqul, giving some more names -- Moyna, Mokhter, Hannan and Samad -- and stating that they were Al-Badr members.

The tribunal adjourned proceedings until February 8 after defence counsels completed cross-examining Shafiqul.