Occupation forces, Sayedee torched Hindu houses: PW

The International Crimes Tribunal on Tuesday adjourned proceedings midway as the prosecution failed to place its listed new witness for giving testimony.

As the defence counsel closed the cross-examination of prosecution witness (PW) No. 14 after recording his testimony before the three-member tribunal against war crimes accused Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee, prosecutor Syed Haider Ali prayed for adjournment as his witness is yet to come.

Earlier, PW Abdul Halim Babul, a village doctor at Parerhat, told the tribunal that after hearing people’s hue and cry from outside his house on June 2 in 1971, he came to know that the occupation forces in association with armed rajakars started marching towards their village.

“We were always in panic about the occupation army and rajakars during the Liberation War,” recalled Babul, adding, “Getting scared, I entered home and asked my family members to run away and all took shelter at a safe place.”

“Subsequently, I saw from a safe distance Sayedee in association with the army and rajakars entered our house and started plundering everything and left the scene after torching it (house),” said the PW.

“Later, I heard from the local people that the army and rajakars set ablaze the houses of Khasru Mian and Amir Khan at Shankarpasha and Hindu dominated locality at Umedpur. “They also gunned down people.”

PW Babul also identified detained Sayedee in the dock.

The tribunal resumes on Wednesday.