On this day in 1971, the Pakistani occupattion army massacred 300 innocent people at Kaliganj village in Jaldhaka upazila when they were crossing the border for a safe shelter in India.

But no political party has taken up any programme to commemorate the event.

Kaliganj is 30 kms from Nilphamari district town and nine kms northwest of Jaldhaka upazila headquarter.

On that day, about 1500 people including women, children and elders from Kathali, Balagram, Golna, Jaldhaka and adjoining villages were walking towards the border to save themselves from Pakistani army.

They were proceeding towards bordering Ambaria village in Domar upazila. When they reached Kaliganj village, then all on a sudden, Pakistani troops on board several vehicles appeared there and ordered them to stop.

The troops then separated young men, young girls and women and elders in three groups.

They ordered the young men, numbering about 300, to stand in a line and shoot them all in front of others.

The troops also charged beyonet on some of them. Before leaving the spot, the troops picked up some young girls.

One of the survivors, Amar Krishno, 56, now a schoolteacher at Balagram village narrated his experience to this correspondent.

He said he was then a young man of 19. The troops' bullets missed him. He fell on the ground and lost sense.

"When I get back sense, I realised that there are many dead bodies around me". "I somehow stood up and hid myself in a bamboo cluster".

Amar Krishna lost his father and two brothers on that day.

Former Union Parishad member Monsad Ali, 60, of Kiligang village expressed his resentment that no government did anything to keep the memory alive for the future generation. Even local units of political parties do not observe the day, he lamented.

The local people built a Shahid Minar (memorial) at the spot. Some local organisations remember this day by placing flowers at the Shaheed Minar.