Dinajpur to recall ‘mine blast tragedy’ today
Today the people of Dinajpur recall the horrific memory of mine blast tragedy in the town in 1972, leaving at least 235 freedom fighters (FFs) dead.
The FFs had been staying at a transit camp in Balubari area of the town.
According to the freedom fighters, the Pakistani troops planted hundreds of ground mines at different places in the district as they sensed their defeat after the nine-month-long fierce fight against the valiant FFs.
The freedom fighters collected the mines and stored those at Dinajpur Moharaja Girijanath High School compound after the victory.
According to witnesses and survivors, around 800 freedom fighters from different districts, including Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Joypurhat, Naogaon and Rangpur, started residing at the transit camp soon after the independence of Bangladesh was declared.
The freedom fighters of the camp engaged themselves to collect the landmines and gather those on the camp premises.
Besides the landmines, the transit camp was full of other explosives like tank mine, antipersonnel-mine and mortars.
On January 6 in 1972, the recovered mines were brought to the transit camp in two trucks from Ghoraghat upazila when the freedom fighters in the transit camp were preparing to offer their evening prayers.
Some freedom fighters were engaged to unload the mines.
The horrific incident occurred in a second, as a landmine slipped on the ground from the hands of a freedom fighter. Just in a few second, all the landmines of the area went off with loud noise and the big flame was visible from distant area in the district. The explosion rocked the entire Dinajpur town.
Around 200 freedom fighters were killed on the spot, said Forhat Hossain a freedom fighter of Dinajpur while scores of them were injured badly.
After the incident their bodies were rescued and dumped at Chehelgazi Mazaar, under Dinajpur Sadar upazila with state honour next day, he said.
All were buried without shrouds, added Forhat.
So far, 235 of the deceased freedom fighters have been identified, he said.
But after 48 years of that tragedy, the exact dead number could not be collected due to lack of proper initiatives.
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