In Pirojpur, Freedom Fighter Manik Pashri’s Mother and Sisters Dug Up His Grave; The Same Happened in Sohagpur in 1971

Opinion

The image of the graves of three women in Pirojpur will change the history of this country. Before that, let me tell you an incident from 1971.

Sohagpur is a village in Nalitabari Upazila of Sherpur. On the morning of July 25, 1971, Pakistani forces, with the help of local Razakars and Al-Badr forces, killed 187 innocent men and raped 14 women in that village. Just in one morning!

Well, let me explain the incident a little. There is a reason behind it.

That morning, news suddenly spread that freedom fighters had taken refuge in the village of Sohagpur! Well, with the help of local Razakars, the Pakistani forces surrounded the village from Prafulla Dighi to the Sadhu Ashram. The search went on for three to four hours.

But without finding anyone outside, the riot began. Ramen Richil, Chatpathang, Cyril Gabriel, Ansar Ali, Latif Mia, Chafar Uddin, Shahar Ali, Hazrat Ali, Riaz Ahmed, Raham Ali, Saheb Ali, Babar Ali, Umed Ali, Asmat Ali, Mohez Uddin, Siraj Ali, Abul Hossain. No one was left out that day. One by one, 187 men from that village were killed. How many people were there in a village at that time?

The widowed women of Sohagpur, who received the title of Virangana.

Some were going to the fields with plows and yokes to plant aman, some were working at home. Siraj Ali was sitting in the field aisle. In an instant, the invading army shot him and many other men dead like birds. The field of aman turned red with blood. Even after being shot five times, Sirajul, son of Raham Ali, lay dying. Seeing that his cries would not stop, they stunned him forever with a sharp bayonet thrust.

At one point, it was seen that there were no more men left in that village. It turned out that 67 women had lost their husbands! The rest had lost their brothers, some their children. Then the rapes began. The Pakistani army raped 14 women in front of everyone. There was a cry all around. Only the screams of women.

The invading army has left. Who will bury the bodies lying around? The surviving women came forward.

Some brought banana leaves, some brought torn saris. The women, who had been raped just a moment ago, were laying four to seven bodies in each grave, shrouded in mosquito nets. The sky and air of Sohagpur were filled with the heartbreaking cries of losing their relatives. Later, that village of husbandless women was called Bidhwapalli.

As of 2018, 12 of those 14 raped women were still alive, I don’t know how many are left now, that year they all received the title of Birangana! One of the Al Badr forces that led the massacre that day was Kamaruzzaman. A Jamaat leader who was convicted of war crimes. These women identified him.

You are today’s girl, privileged to have been born in an independent country, don’t you sit and camp in Rokeya Hall in the middle of Dhaka city? Which is not far from Sohagpur, Mohakhali, a three-hour journey. Listen to the story of a woman your grandmother’s age. What did they give to bring this country?

Why did I write this story? The Jamaat did not allow the grave of the witness in the Razakar Sayedee case to be dug. In this year 26. Two sisters and their wives turned on the lights of their mobile phones and buried the freedom fighter in a half-baked grave in the darkness of the night! The same incident happened on July 25, 1971. The women dug the graves of 186 men.

Do you remember what happened to you in 1971? The same thing will happen to you again.

The scene of the graves of three women in Pirojpur will change the history of this country. Write it down.

– Raju Narul