Taher killing verdict made public

DHAKA: The High Court on Monday made public its full verdict that declared the 1976 court-martialing of Col Abu Taher “illegal and unconstitutional” and his execution a “cold-blooded assassination.

Additional Attorney General MK Rahman told journalists that Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Sheikh M Jakir Hossain signed the full verdict.

On March 22 in 2011, redeeming the rebel from being condemned as a traitor over three decades after the camera trial, the High Court pronounced the verdict.

“Taher’s so-called execution was actually a cold-blooded murder by none other than Ziaur Rahman,” an HC bench said in its ruling that came as another legal measure for a reversal of Bangladesh’s post-August 15 political chronicles as the court verdict also made a flashback on the Mujib killing.      

The court ordered forming a high-powered committee to unveil the whole truth that “Ziaur Rahman had a direct role in killing Bangabandhu and 2/3 thousand freedom fighters.”

Retired judges, journalists, jurists must be on the committee, says the verdict pronounced by the HC bench of Justices AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain.

The belated court judgment lifted the slain independence leader Sheikh Mujib and freedom fighter army officer-turned-self-styled revolutionary to tragic heroes of epical proportions in Bangladesh’s baroque political history.          

Before coming to the crucial conclusions, the court had examined submissions by the state side, a judge of the trial court, plaintiffs and witnesses who include a foreign journalist who was a watcher on the tumultuous developments in the country’s political scenario at the time.     

The journalist, Lawrence Lifschultz of the United States, who had covered the episodes in Dhaka as the correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review, testified in writing from his diary and extempore before the court.

He implicated general Ziaur Rahman—who later became President of Bangladesh—on both counts: August 15, 1975 carnage and 1976 military trial and execution of Taher.                  

And High Court verdict from the two-judge bench resonates with the observations made in the submission by the American journalist, Lifschultz.         

“Colonel Taher’s killing was a tragic episode in our history and human rights violation in South Asia,” the court said in its verdict quoting Lifschultz’ submission in the court.

The verdict was delivered on a writ petition challenging the legality of the trial in a military tribunal and execution of 16 freedom-fighter rebels, including Col Abu Taher.

Col Taher was hanged on July 21, 1976 on a charge of high treason at the climax of a topsy-turvy amid coups and counter-coups since the August 15 assassination of country’s founder-president Mujib along with most members of his family.

About Taher’s trial process the court in the verdict observed: “It was a melodrama, it was a fiction.”

The court says Colonel Abu Taher and his comrades-in-arms JSD leader Hasanul Huq Inu MP, Mahmudur Rahman Manna and Major Ziauddin--all of them--should be hailed as “patriot” instead of “traitor”.

And Colonel Taher must be accorded honour of a “martyr”. These people were not with Ziaur Rahman’s “autocratic” way rather they stood against his decisions, says the verdict, with regard to the November 3 and November 7 episodes in 1975.

The court ruled that none other than Ziaur Rahman was involved in the “so-called” trial and execution.

Incidentally, Zia, who is hailed by his faithful as the proclaimer of Bangladesh’s independence in 1971 against the secretive Pakistani rulers, was incriminated when he is no more here to defend him. The ex-army chief-turned-president and founder of BNP, in his turn, was assassinated on May 30, 1981.        

On this score the court said, “It is unfortunate that Ziaur Rahman is no more alive to face a murder case, but as the magistrate of the tribunal, Abdul Ali, the abetter in the killing, is still alive, the court orders the authority concerned to file a murder case against him.”   

“A criminal case procedure does not consider whether the offence done at the direction of higher authority or on necessity. In this consideration only the punishment can be scaled down,” judges said in the verdict about the magistrate of the trial court.

The court went on denouncing Zia’s role: Ziaur Rahman wanted to erase the memories of liberation. He introduced religion-based politics replacing secularism. He established a children’s park on the place where the Pakistani army surrendered after fall in the liberation war. He rehabilitated the killers of Bangabandhu and put them in powerful positions. Media, in his regime, were not allowed to use words like rajakar and Pakistani occupation force.  

Earlier, at the close of long-drawn hearings, the court on Sunday fixed Tuesday for delivering judgment on the petition.

Col Taher, a sector commander of the War of Liberation in 1971, was tried in secret inside Dhaka Central Jail on July 17, 1976. He was executed on July 21.

Taher was a leader of the 7th November 1975 ‘sepoy-people’ uprising that eventually saved general Ziaur Rahman from captivity and put into power while led Taher onto the gallows.

Taher’s wife Lutfa Taher, his brother Prof Anwar Hossain and Fatema Yusuf, wife of Taher’s brother Yusuf Ali Khan, on August 22, 2010 filed a writ petition challenging legality of the camera trial and execution of Col Taher.

On August 23, 2010, the High Court had issued rule upon the government to explain why the Martial Law Regulations under which Colonel Taher was executed should not be declared ‘illegal and unconstitutional’.