DEATH, on six charges

He massacred young and old, women and children alike. He considered neither their age nor faith while carrying out atrocities in Nagarkanda of Faridpur during the Liberation War.He and his men even shot dead a two-year-old baby girl in her mother's lap, supposed to be the safest of places for a child. The girl's family was fleeing when the “self-proclaimed” Razakar and his gang opened fire on them at Goaldi village of Nagarkanda on May 31, 1971.Around 43 years after he committed the savagery in cold blood, a special tribunal yesterday sentenced MA Zahid Hossain Khokon, better known as Khokon Razakar, to death.He is the third BNP man to have been convicted of war crimes. Also mayor of Nagarkanda Pourasabha, Khokon was tried in absentia, as the tribunal's efforts to have him in the dock failed.

"We have taken due notice of the intrinsic gravity of the said offences of crimes against humanity which are particularly shocking to the conscience of mankind," Justice M Enayetur Rahim, chairman of the International Crimes Tribunal-1, said in the judgment."... in consideration of the gravity and magnitude of the offences ..., we unanimously hold that the accused deserves the highest punishment," he said.Seventy-two-year-old Khokon, who reportedly fled the country in 2011 and is now in Sweden, was found guilty on 10 of the 11 charges brought against him.

Six charges brought him death. Those include mass killing in Shahidnagar and Kodalia villages; murders, plundering and arson at Ishwardi, Meherdia, Kodalia and Bangram villages; the killing of two, including the baby girl at Goaldi village; murders, plundering and arson in Purapara village; and mass killing at Baghat and Churiarchar villages in Faridpur.The tribunal jailed him for 20 years for involvement in looting and rape of two Hindu women at Chandhat village on May 27, 1971.He was given 10 years' imprisonment for forcing eight Hindus to convert to Islam at Jonggurdi-Bagutia village between May 16 and 28, 1971.Khokon got five years' imprisonment for destroying houses at Jonggurdi-Bagutia village, and another five years for shooting and injuring Kanailal Mondol of the village.All the sentences will merge into a single sentence of death, said the court.The three-member tribunal, however, acquitted him of the charge of abducting and torturing 17 people, and plundering their houses at Bongram in Faridpur.Yesterday's court proceeding began with Justice Anwarul Haque reading out the summary of the 109-page verdict around 11:00am. Later, Justice Jahangir Hossain, another member of the panel, read out the second part of the judgment.Justice M Enayetur Rahim read out the main part of the verdict.With the latest judgment, the two special tribunals have so far convicted 13 people for committing war crimes. Of them, four are on the run.

Khokon, who was 29 during the Liberation War, received training on how to operate weapons to become a Razakar in April, 1971.Formed by the then Jamaat leader AKM Yusuf, Razakar Bahini collaborated with the Pakistani army as its auxiliary force in killing 30 lakh people and raping two lakh women during the Liberation War.Khokon and his elder brother Zafar formed the Nagarkanda unit of infamous Razakar force in May, 1971. After his brother's death in a battle with freedom fighters, he became the commander of local Razakars.Khokon campaigned for a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate in the 1970 elections and was involved with the party until he joined the BNP, founded in 1978.The prosecutors said Khokon was a self-proclaimed Razakar commander, and he used to say it publicly with pride.Later, he became vice-president of Nagarkanda BNP. He was elected municipality mayor in 2011, but went into hiding after taking the oath.Usha Munshi, acting mayor of Nagarkanda municipality, said Khokon was suspended from office after the probe in his war crimes case began last year.During case proceedings, state-appointed defence counsel Abdus Shukur Khan claimed his client Nagarkanda mayor MA Zahid was charged with war crimes that were actually committed by another person named MA Zahid Hossain Khokon.

He also insisted that his client MA Zahid is actually a freedom fighter, and never went to those crime sites during the Liberation War.However, 18 of the 24 prosecution witnesses, mostly victims, testified that they knew Zahid Hossain Khokon and his elder brother, Razakar commander Zafar, and that the brothers committed war crimes in their locality in 1971.The judgment read, "The accused had directly participated in the commission of crimes as an armed member of Razakar force."“It is abundantly clear that the accused absconded to evade the process of justice though he is the sitting Mayor of Nagarkanda Pourasabha. It may be presumed that had the accused not been involved in the crime, he would have certainly appeared before the Tribunal to face the trial”, the court observed."Thus, the claim of the defence that wrong person has been charged and prosecuted has no leg to stand," the verdict adds.Family members of the victims expressed satisfaction at the verdict, and demanded he be brought back home and executed.As in the past, the defence in this case also was unhappy with the judgment."It did not establish justice. My client was not involved in any war crime activities and the allegations against him were false and baseless," said Shukur Khan.

The lawyer said he couldn't deal with the case properly as the convict's family members didn't cooperate with him.The court said the convict can file an appeal in 30 days, but only after he surrenders or is arrested.Prosecutors Mukhlesur Rahman Badal and Sabina Yasmin Munni said the 30-day deadline began yesterday, and the convict wouldn't be allowed to file an appeal once the deadline expires.But Shukur Khan said Khokon could file an application with the Supreme Court even after the deadline, and seek its permission for lodging an appeal. The apex court would then decide whether it would allow him to file the appeal.Last year, the ICT-2 handed down death penalty to expelled Jamaat-e-Islami member Abul Kalam Azad, known as Bachchu Razakar, and former Al-Badr leaders Ashrafuzzaman Khan and Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin -- all tried in absentia in war crimes cases.