A Correspondent :
People of Chittagong first witnessed the grisly genocide on March 31 in 1971 in city’s Maddhyam Nath Para, a small hamlet of low caste Hindu community in the city.
The blood hungry butchers belonging to the Bihari community led by one Shawkat killed 79 Bangalees with axes, spades, knives and other lethal weapons within a span of few hours on that day.
Among the martyrs, 40 were members of the then East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) and 39 were inhabitants of the locality, said relatives of the victims.
Pijush Nath, Son of Martyr Anil Bihari Nath, said the EPR members of Halishahar camp, led by the then Major Rafique put up strong resistance against the occupied Pakistan army on the black night of March 25 in 1971 when Bengalee civilians of south Halishahar cooperated with them, that infuriated the Pakistani occupation forces.
Pakistani forces on the following day cordoned off the Gohona channel on the north of the city and the adjacent areas of the EPR camp on the southern parts of the city. The EPR jawans first made a strong resistance against Pakistan army with limited stock of arms and ammunition.
But at one stage, they fall back because of scarcity of arms and ammunitions as at least 40 of EPR jawans took shelters in different houses of Maddhyam Nath Para.
Later the Pakistani collaborators started genocide at noon on March 31. After the frantic search in all the houses, they murdered the young Bengalees one after another and later also torched their houses that still haunt the horrific and traumatic incident of carnage in the minds of survivors.
Mrinal Nath, another son of Nirubala , who survived the killing, said, “I don’t want any grants or sympathy for my slain grandfather, father and two elder brothers, I just demand the government to give proper punishment to the accomplice of butchers”.
A mausoleum was built there a few years back with the initiative of freedom fighter and researcher Dr. Mahfuzur Rahman, dramatist Prodeep Dewanji, Journalist Nashir Uddin Chowdhury, columnist Sakhawat Hossain Majnu, Architect Dhali Al Mamun as a mark of the profound tributes to the martyrs for their supreme sacrifice.
People of Chittagong first witnessed the grisly genocide on March 31 in 1971 in city’s Maddhyam Nath Para, a small hamlet of low caste Hindu community in the city.
The blood hungry butchers belonging to the Bihari community led by one Shawkat killed 79 Bangalees with axes, spades, knives and other lethal weapons within a span of few hours on that day.
Among the martyrs, 40 were members of the then East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) and 39 were inhabitants of the locality, said relatives of the victims.
Pijush Nath, Son of Martyr Anil Bihari Nath, said the EPR members of Halishahar camp, led by the then Major Rafique put up strong resistance against the occupied Pakistan army on the black night of March 25 in 1971 when Bengalee civilians of south Halishahar cooperated with them, that infuriated the Pakistani occupation forces.
Pakistani forces on the following day cordoned off the Gohona channel on the north of the city and the adjacent areas of the EPR camp on the southern parts of the city. The EPR jawans first made a strong resistance against Pakistan army with limited stock of arms and ammunition.
But at one stage, they fall back because of scarcity of arms and ammunitions as at least 40 of EPR jawans took shelters in different houses of Maddhyam Nath Para.
Later the Pakistani collaborators started genocide at noon on March 31. After the frantic search in all the houses, they murdered the young Bengalees one after another and later also torched their houses that still haunt the horrific and traumatic incident of carnage in the minds of survivors.
Mrinal Nath, another son of Nirubala , who survived the killing, said, “I don’t want any grants or sympathy for my slain grandfather, father and two elder brothers, I just demand the government to give proper punishment to the accomplice of butchers”.
A mausoleum was built there a few years back with the initiative of freedom fighter and researcher Dr. Mahfuzur Rahman, dramatist Prodeep Dewanji, Journalist Nashir Uddin Chowdhury, columnist Sakhawat Hossain Majnu, Architect Dhali Al Mamun as a mark of the profound tributes to the martyrs for their supreme sacrifice.
