A witness to the 2009 BDR carnage yesterday testified how jawans threw the bodies of the then BDR officers Col Mujibul Haque and Lt Col Enayetul Haque on the ground from the third floor of a building in the Pilkhana headquarters after shooting them dead.
While submitting his deposition before the makeshift Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court, Havilder Bazlur Rashid said he had also seen sepoy Alim Reza gun down second-in-command of the 36 Rifle Battalion Maj Makbul in a first floor room of the same building.
He said a group of jawans had brought Dhaka sector commander Col Mujib and commander of the battalion Lt Col Enayet on the third floor of the building and taken them in separate rooms.
"Some time later, I heard gunshots in the room where Lt Col Enayet was taken. Moments later Havilder Yusuf, lance nayek Anwar and sepoy Bazlur Rashid -- all equipped with firearms -- went to the room where Mujib sir was confined and shot him dead," Bazlur told the court.
Prior to Bazlur, witness Major Iqbal Hasan gave his testimony before the court.
He descried how jawans shot dead officers at the Darbar Hall, its adjoining toilet and kitchen during the massacre on February 25 in 2009. He specifically mentioned how sepoy Sumon shot Lt Col Sajjad at a point blank range. The victim was hiding behind a huge kitchen utensil.
Fifty seven top and mid-ranking army officers including the then director general of erstwhile BDR Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed and 17 others were brutally killed in the carnage.
Havilder Bazlur placed his deposition before the court set up at the Government Alia Madrasa playground at Bakshibazar in the city after the defence lawyers finished cross-examining Maj Iqbal.
The court will resume its proceedings on January 16.
Maj Iqbal said that after the rebel jawans encircled the Darbar hall, the then BDR chief Maj Gen Shakil and Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed made many calls from their mobile phones.
"Col Gulzar was telling someone 'sir, send troops in half an hour, otherwise they will kill all of us. We are unarmed'," the witness told the court.
Maj Iqbal also said that while the DG had been addressing the Darbar Hall gathering, sepoy Moyeen entered Darbar Hall and was stepping towards the DG with a firearm in his hand.
Soon, many jawans rushed towards the opposite direction off the dais while some officers rushed to the stage and tied up Moyeen with shoe lace, the witness continued.
Sometime later, he saw many jawans around the Darbar Hall started firing and at one stage entered the hall.
Maj Iqbal also described how he had survived the massacre by hiding inside kitchen, sometimes by carrying basketful of earth on his shoulder -- pretending to be an ordinary sepoy --and finally under the hollow of a stage inside Pilkhana.