The decomposed body of a former BDR member, who was an eyewitness to the Pilkhana massacre, was found tied to a cement sack in the Baleshwari River after he went missing, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 was told on Sunday.
Md Nizam Uddin Howlader, a retired additional superintendent of police, gave this testimony in the trial of former army officer Ziaul Ahsan, who faces charges of enforced disappearance and murder during the regime of the fallen Awami League government.
The tribunal recorded the deposition of the 60-year-old witness on Sunday, in the presence of Prosecutor Shyikh Mahdi and defence counsel Md Sahidur Rahman.
Body on the Baleshwari bank
In his testimony, Nizam Uddin Howlader stated that on 17 May 2010, he was serving as the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Sarankhola Police Station in Bagerhat district.
Around 3pm that day, whilst on official duty at the office of the Bagerhat Superintendent of Police, a chowkidar (watchman) from Sarankhola Police Station called to inform him that an unidentified decomposed body had been found on the west bank of the Baleshwari River in Chal Rayenda.
The chowkidar reported that the body’s hands and feet were tied, the head was wrapped in cloth, the abdomen was slit, and it was tied to a solidified cement sack.
Following the report, Howlader directed Sub-Inspector (SI) Iqbal to take the necessary measures.
SI Iqbal went to the scene, registered a General Diary (GD) entry, prepared an inquest report, and brought the body to the police station in the evening because it was too late to send it to the hospital.
After the chowkidar filed a First Information Report (FIR), SI Iqbal registered a regular murder case and took charge of the investigation.
Howlader returned to the station at night and observed the external condition of the decomposing body. The next morning, the body was sent to Bagerhat Sadar Hospital for a post-mortem, after which it was buried at the Bagerhat graveyard as an unidentified body by Anjuman Mufidul Islam, a charitable organisation.
Phone call after two days
Roughly two days after the body’s recovery, Howlader received a phone call from a man claiming that the deceased was his brother.
The caller stated that his brother had been abducted from Kotalipara in Gopalganj about two to three months earlier, and that a kidnapping case had already been filed with Kotalipara Police Station.
Four to five days later, two brothers, the wife, and an uncle of the deceased arrived at Sarankhola Police Station and identified him by the shirt and trousers preserved there. They identified the deceased as Nazrul Islam, a former BDR member.
The family members revealed that since the Pilkhana massacre, which occurred on 25 and 26 February 2009 at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka, Nazrul Islam had been in hiding and working as a medical assistant at a clinic in Gopalganj.
According to prosecution sources, Nazrul Islam was an eyewitness to the brutal and horrific killings at Pilkhana.
When the family expressed their desire to retrieve the remains, the OC explained that the body had already been buried as unidentified, but advised them that they could relocate the body through the Deputy Commissioner after confirming his identity via DNA testing.
Call from BDR Sector
Four to five days after the body was recovered, a colonel from the Khulna BDR Sector also contacted the OC over the phone.
Having read about the incident in the newspapers, the colonel sought detailed information and requested Howlader to assist a BDR representative who would visit the station with the necessary papers.
The colonel also expressed his willingness to arrange DNA testing for the deceased if required.
The victim’s family agreed to the DNA testing, but Howlader was transferred to Rampal Police Station two weeks later.
Howlader noted that he had served at Sarankhola for 11 months and had a total of six years of service as an Officer-in-Charge. He mentioned learning from contemporary newspapers that bullet-ridden bodies were being recovered in various parts of the country at that time.
Cross-examination
During cross-examination by defence lawyer Md Sahidur Rahman, the witness stated that he had only seen the upper portion of the decomposed body and not the entire corpse.
He noted that he did not see any bullet marks on the portion he saw, though he observed what appeared to be blood near the ear.
He admitted he had not examined the post-mortem or inquest reports, and could not recall the name of the chowkidar who reported the body. While he saw the cement sack at the police station, he did not know if it had been seized, nor could he recall if the sack was made of jute.
Howlader also testified that the caller who contacted him two days after the recovery was the victim’s younger brother calling from Jhalakathi, though he could not recall his name. Moreover, he could not remember if he had recorded the phone information in the General Diary.
