The ongoing photography exhibition at the National Art Gallery, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy features rare black and white photographs that document incidents that led to the Liberation War, key political leaders prior to and during the war, Freedom Fighters in action and brutality of the Pakistan Army.

The collection starts off with images of the 'Mass Upsurge' in 1969. A demonstration with Shaheed Asad's shirt near the stadium (GPO area) is noteworthy. Asad, a student activist was killed on January 20, 1969 when police opened fire on a procession brought out by Students Action Committee. His death changed the nature of the student movement and turned it into a mass upsurge against the Ayub Khan regime. His blood-stained shirt became a memento during the movement.

Other images in the section show policemen ready to open fire in front of the emergency department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital and an angry mob attacking a government building.

The iconic image of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman addressing the nation at the Race Course on March 7, 1971 is also included. In his speech, Mujib asked the countrymen to "fortify each and every home and resist the Pakistan Army with whatever in hand..."

In another photograph, leading political figure Maulana Bhashani and his companions are seen being stopped by police near Purana Paltan area during a promulgation of 144. Photographs also bear proof of active participation of women in the political movements; an image of female activists holding rifles, parading the streets for example.

Photographs highlighting the carnage during the war and the immediate consequences are depicted in images of Bangabhaban in shambles and serpentines queues of refugees waiting for food at a camp in Agartala (India). The exodus from East Pakistan to the refugee camps is also documented.

Chief of Z-Force Major Ziaur Rahman (Commander of Sector 1 up to June, 1971) is seen with Brigadier VC Pandey of BSF (India) in Teliapara on April 4, 1971. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is seen at Karachi Airport, under custody in a photograph published in Newsweek on April 26, 1971.

Freedom Fighters in lungi and shorts are seen planning an attack. Photographs also show them in action. Commander-in-chief of the Liberation Forces, General Mohammad Ataul Ghani Osmani is seen at a camp in Dalu, another image shows Mother Teresa and US Senator Edward Kennedy at a field hospital in Calcutta (now Kolkata) run by 'War on Want', a British organisation. The latter was taken on August 11, 1971.

Graphic photographs of Rayer Bazar where mass execution of leading Bengali intellectuals, artistes, litterateurs and other top level professionals took place by the Pakistan Army and their accomplices -- members of Al Badr -- bear evidence of heinous war crimes. The mass execution was carried out as an attempt to intellectually paralyse a nation when a humiliating defeat was imminent. A photograph shows the body of martyred intellectual Selina Parveen, blindfolded when killed.

The line up ends with an image of a tank (of the Allied Forces) entering Dhaka on December 16, 1971.

To the generation that has not seen the war, the display can be an eye-opening experience. The exhibition is open till December 22.