Detained Baloch National Party leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury on Thursday told the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) that he was a victim of political persecution.
“Political persecution is not a novel phenomenon in South Asia. Only the degree of persecution seems to have increased in geometrical progression in subsequent regimes,” Salauddin said.
Salauddin was testifying for himself as the first defence witness in the war crimes case against him.
All the 23 offences for which he is undergoing trial were committed during the Liberation War in 1971 at different places in Chittagong.
“Prominent leaders of the Indian independence movement like Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shawkat Ali, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his father Motilal Nehru and many others were detained for a long time by the British colony,” he said. “But formal communication between the detainees and the governor general of British India was of mutual respect.”
“I cannot recall a single instance during the 23-year of Pakistan rule when any political leader or a public representative was physically tortured or abused while in custody.”
“Even when Mujibur Rahman was arrested on March 25 in 1971 by the Pakistan army, he never complained of any misbehaviour towards him while in jail.”
He narrated in the court how “the petty tyrants in uniform” misbehaved with him after he was arrested on February 4, 2007 during the rule of caretaker government.
The ICT on June 13 ordered that the number of defence witnesses be restricted to five after the defence submitted a list of 1,153 names.
The prosecution had 41 witnesses.
Salauddin Quader was arrested on charge of his involvement in torching a car on June 26 of the same year at Moghbazar causing the death of one person.
He was arrested in connection with the crimes against humanity by the tribunal on December 19.
He is accused of masterminding the murder of Nutan Chandra Singha in 1971. Nutan was a reputed philanthropist and industrialist in Chittagong.
The prosecution pressed 24 specific charges of crimes against humanity against the accused on November 14, 2011.
