Witness recounts father’s killing by BGB men at ICT

Mithu Rajbonshi answered a call on his father’s mobile phone, only to hear an unknown voice tell him that his father, Gonga Choron Rajbonshi, had been shot by Border Guard Bangladesh personnel and was lying critically injured on the Rampura Bridge. 

The caller urged him to rush there immediately.

The account was placed before International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday by Bishojit Rajbonshi, the younger brother of Mithu, as the first prosecution witness in a crimes against humanity case over the killing of 28 people in Rampura on July 18–19, 2024, during the mass uprising.

Two former BGB officers -- Lt Col Mohammad Redowanul Islam and Maj Rafat Bin Alam Moon -- who are currently in custody, and two former police officers, Md Rashedul Islam, then additional deputy commissioner of Khilgaon, and Md Moshior Rahman, then officer-in-charge of Rampura Police Station, who remain fugitives, are accused in the case. 

The two former BGB officers were present in the dock during the testimony.

Bishojit, 29, an AC mechanic from the city’s Badda, told the tribunal he received the call around 10:00pm on July 18, 2024. He rushed towards Rampura Bridge with his mother and several acquaintances, only to find his father’s bullet-riddled body lying on the road.

Unable to find a rickshaw, they continued on foot. Along the way, people warned them not to proceed, saying BGB personnel were firing indiscriminately and they could be killed.

They somehow reached Aftabnagar Gate, where BGB members and police stopped them. “When we said my father was sick and we were going to bring him home, BGB and police asked us to proceed with our hands raised,” Bishojit said.

He testified that a boy aged about 14 or 15 was standing beside his father’s body, holding Gonga’s mobile phone, and told them that BGB personnel had shot him. 

The area was dark, filled with smoke and the stench of gas. After repeated pleas, they found a pedal van and carried Gonga, a private car driver, home around 11:30pm.

Later that night, Bishojit said he went to Badda and then Rampura police stations to report the killing, but police barred him from entering and drove him away. The family cremated Gonga at the Postogola cremation ground the following day.

After internet services were restored, Bishojit said media reports revealed that BGB and police personnel had killed his father on instructions from their superiors. He sought justice from the tribunal.

The tribunal set January 26 for cross-examination of the witness.

In his opening statement earlier in the day, Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam said the brutality of the Rampura killings was comparable to March 25, 1971, adding that state forces opened fire on citizens without provocation using arms bought with taxpayers’ money.

Meanwhile, the same tribunal deferred to January 26 the delivery of its verdict in a case over the killing of six people in the capital’s Chankharpul area during the 2024 mass uprising.

Several parents of the victims gathered at the ICT-1 premises, hoping to witness justice for their sons. Grieving mothers and fathers arrived early, some supported by relatives. Speaking to The Daily Star, they said they had come to see whether the law would finally acknowledge their loss.

In another development, the verdict is set to be announced any day in a crimes against humanity case linked to the killing of seven people during the July uprising of 2024 in Ashulia, as arguments from both the prosecution and defence concluded yesterday.