12 Apr 2012: Sayedee investigation officer day 5

As the hearing started, the prosecutor Haider Ali told the tribunal that they had now given the defence copies of 9 CD/DVDs which were given earlier. But we are giving them again now.

Mijanul Islam said that we were given 8 CD/DVDs earlier. Today they have given us 9 CD/DVDs. At least one is new and need to check the others.

Helal Uddin, the Investigation Officer, continued his examination in chief (from the previous day)

Mass atrocities have happened to the innocent people of Bangladesh by the Al-Badar & Al-Shams alliances, which falls under section 3(2) of the ICT Act-1973 and the investigation is continuing to the Investigation Agency under section-8(1) of the ICT Act-1973.Already investigation reports have been submitted against some accused persons after finding the primary proof. The atrocities committed in Pirojpur were not some individual incidents but the joint responsibility of the Pakistan Army and their auxiliary forces. I did the overall investigation. I’ve visited the place of occurrence and captured the still photographs and videos by the help of official camera; thus printed and edited the materials. I’ve noted down the statements of the witnesses. Afterwards I’ve found out about the history of Pakistan-India and Bangladesh from the year 1947. I’ve gone through the books, journals, newspapers which were about the liberation war of Bangladesh. I’ve watched the relevant video documentation, the internet sites which have stated the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army and their auxiliary forces. From the above mentioned elements, it has been primarily found that- this area has been ruled by the British emperor for almost 200 years.

Then he started on the historical background of this area, which starts from the Lahore declaration of 1940; the division of this area in 1947, the speech of the Mr. Jinnah towards the student community about the state language, the Language movements of 1952, Agaortola Conspiracy Case of 1968 and the withdrawal of the case in 1969, the election of 1970 where Awami League won 167 seats of the 169 seats, then he submitted the historical speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of 7th March, 1971 and it as shown been on the multimedia screen of the Tribunal; and it has been counted as the material display number- 6.

Chairman: Mr. Haider Ali, if the defence give you the assistance in the photocopying of the five volumes of foreign newspapers clippings provided by the liberation war museum, would you agree to provide those to them?

Prosecutor: Okay. But from where will the process of photocopy be done?

Defence: We propose three places- they can choose any one—Supreme Court Bar Library/, Nilkhet Market/ Defence Office.

Chairman: Which place would you prefer?

Prosecutor: It would be any places other than the defence office.

Defence: Nilkhet is a good place to photocopy as they provide professional service; as the documents are so sensitive after these so many years.

Prosecution: We have already exhibited these documents. They are now the Tribunal’s property. So these five volumes should be copied in presence of a court staff.

Chairman: Ok, the Court staff will copy the document in Nilkhet in presence of the prosecution and the defence counsels on Sunday.

The court was adjourned till 2 P.M.

In the afternoon, the tribunal dealt with an application relating to Salauddin Quader Chowdhury