It was around 11:00am on the fateful morning of April 17, 1971.

Sheikh Mozaffar Ahmed, founder of Awami League in Chittagong, and his son Sheikh Alamgir along with their other family members were returning to their home in Rahamatganj from Raozan. They were in a car.

The moment they reached Hathazari, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury with some Pakistani army personnel “obstructed” the vehicle and “abducted” the two from there.

Later, the family members came to know that the two victims were taken to a nearby army camp and subsequently killed.

They went to the camp several times to get the bodies back in vain.

”Since the incident, all we ever wanted is justice and to see Salauddin hanged,” Sheikh Jahangir, another son of Mozaffar, told The Daily Star at his house in Rahamatganj yesterday.

His eyes were glued to the television since early morning to know about yesterday's Supreme Court verdict on the appeal of war criminal Salauddin.

Tears of joy rolled down his eyes when he heard that the death penalty for Salauddin was upheld by the apex court, paving the way for the BNP leader's hanging.

Jahangir, a freedom fighter himself, was lucky that he was not in the car that day in 1971.

Few days before the incident, he on his father's instruction went to Puinchhari in Cox's Bazar for hiding.

”I was also being targeted by Razakars and Al-Badrs as I was actively involved in politics,” said the 78-year-old.

Reminiscing about the “horrific” days of 1971, Jahangir said Salauddin “killed” his father and brother as their family was involved with AL politics.

After the killing, he said, the family members and their relatives went to the then Muslim League leader Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, Salauddin's father, several times and sought his help for the victims' rescue in vain.

“Now I want to see the quick execution of the verdict,” Jahangir said. 

However, he said his family members were feeling insecure after the verdict.

Razakars and Al-Badrs were auxiliary forces of the Pakistan occupation army during the 1971 Liberation War.

Umme Habiba Sultana, wife of Sheikh Alamgir and an eyewitness to the abduction, testified before a tribunal and said on the direction of Salauddin, Pakistan army picked up her father-in-law and husband in front of her.

On October 1, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 found Salauddin, now 66, guilty of nine of the 23 charges brought against him of committing crimes against humanity.

The tribunal handed him death penalty on charges -- involvement in the killing of Natun Chandra Singa, Mozaffar and Alamgir; and two acts of genocide in Raozan.