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Saturday, February 4, 2012

A terrifying victory day

Shamsher Chowdhury

After an anxious and sleepless night I woke up from my bed on the early hours of the day, the 16th of December 197I. I stood on the balcony of my ancestral home and looked through the East and West ends of the street known as Central Road, as far as the eye could see. It was now about 6 in the morning. The street was deserted and looked as though tired and weary. I tuned on the Radio Pakistan, as usual it continued with its broadcast of verses from the holy Quran since the last 48 hours or so. I came downstairs and began to stroll anxiously up and down the front porch of our house. The voice of my brother (late) Shaheed Munier Chowdhury was still ringing in my ears.

2004-12-16

Call of duty

Inam Ahmed and Julfikar Ali Manik

A photographer missed the final snap of General Niazi laying down his revolver in surrendering to the allied forces as he ran out of films; a reporter had only one chance to ask a question to Gen Niazi; a news editor did not know how to get his team members together to bring out the newspaper.

2004-12-16

Undefeated Bangladesh

A photo feature by Naib Uddin Ahmed

With a Rolleiflex Camera, I wandered from one killing field to another taking photographs. So many dead bodies eaten by the vultures and foxes! I had wanted to photograph one particular sequence, but I could not. Along the bank of Brahmaputra River, the Pakistani forces would shoot Bangalis standing in queue. The water of the Brahmaputra would move with the roars of the rifles. The blood of the freedom fighters would mingle with the red colour reflected in the water from the setting sun. How many days have I seen this from a distance… I could not preserve this in my camera since I did not have a good tele lens. But those bloody sequences are preserved in the memory through the black and white lenses of my two eyes. The dead bodies would appear floating in the chars. Even now, when I look at the water of the Bahmaputra, I can see the shadow of those dead bodies.

2009-12-07

Towards nation's prosperity

Ashraf Al Deen

16th December is our victory day. In 1971 this day marked the victory of the Bengali nationalism, victory of the people of Bangladesh and also the victory of our friends around the world who actively helped and supported us in times of our needs. Apart from the geo-political war-game and real-time ground situations, it was the victory of liberty and freedom in true sense of the term.

2004-12-16

Tales of the tortured

Many women who participated actively in the 1971 war were arrested and kept in camps experiencing inhuman conditions. Rape, torture and in many cases death was common in those camps. We tell the stories of two women participants who were subjected extreme nature of abuse and brutality. To protect the privacy of these women, we have changed their identities.

2004-12-16

Indelible memories

Mustafa Zaman

The celebration, joy and glory of independence aside, 16 Dece-mber stands for many other emotional feelings for many Bangalis. Few months into the war, Dhakaities ceased to buy fishes from bazaars. It continued even after December 16, "as we didn't want to buy fishes that were thought to have been pecking at corpses. Hilsas were avoided altogether, as Hilsas are the ones that most likely to nibble at corpses," remembers Moham-mad Ali, who was a boy of class six in 1971.

2004-12-16

Missing links of history

Brigadier General M. Sakhawat Hussain

On 15th December 2003, ARY Digital TV network, a Pakistani owned private TV station that beams from Dubai, aired a program that no Pakistani or Pakistani media had done before. It was an interview based TV talk show that centered on a few characters that played keys role in military operations in the then East Pakistan in 1971. Not only Pakistanis, but one of the Bangladeshi stalwarts, the only surviving sector commander and post Liberation Chief of Army Staff, Major General KM Shafiullah also participated in voicing his opinion. In his interview General Shafiullah in brief explained the aim and objective and the circumstances that led to Bengali resistance to Pakistani brutality that led to the War of Independence.

2004-12-16

'I would rather die than sign any false statement'

Arnold Zeitlin who was The Associated Press bureau chief in Pakistan when he covered events leading to the creation of Bangladesh in 1969 till 1972 gives us accounts of political manouverings that in his opinion could have averted the bloody war between East and West Paksitan.

2004-12-16

The war we did not cover

Inam Ahmed

Abbas -- that is how he represents himself in his business card, just one name; no surname, no nickname -- has been covering wars for the last 34 years. Still he remembers with reverence his first assignment to cover a war -- the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

2008-12-16

A child's victory

Inam Ahmed

December 15
The usual nightly sortie of the mysterious droning plane was there. Followed by the terrifying bombardments. Usually two or three bombs flew down from the mysterious plane. You could actually hear the bombs coming, or at least we would imagine them because it was so quiet everywhere. Then a blue flash would fill the rooms, something like camera flashes. And then the drone of the plane would face away. Every night it happened and we waited in muted anxiety and fear for the routine thing to be over.

2008-12-16

Journey to victory

Major General AKM Shafiullah was the Second in Command of Second East Bengal Regiment that revolted on the night of March 25, 1971. He talks about the days of December 1971 just before Pakistan Army surrendered.

2004-12-16

Looking the past in the eye

Habibul Haque Khondker

Sidrah, a student of mine of Pakistani origin at National University of Singapore, came to see me the other day. She asked me some questions on the course I was teaching, and then she asked me whether I would answer some of her questions not related to Sociological Theory, the course I was teaching. I agreed.

2004-12-16

Fall of 'Dacca'

Siddiq Salik, who was a PRO of Eastern Command, Pakistan Army witnessed the communications between the military in East Pakistan and the West Pakistan in the early days of December 1971 and wrote the accounts in a book called 'Witness to Surrender'. We publish excerpts from the last chapter called of his book.

2004-12-16

'Stop Genocide'

Afsar Ahmed

An old lady is journeying towards an unknown destination leaving everything behind--her motherland, her home, her blood relations and her dreams. The toils and travails, the agonies depicted in her face are enough to touch anyone's heart. This scene from the documentary Stop Genocide is so moving that anyone can feel the horror of the brutality and genocide going on in the then East Pakistan. Stop Genocide was the perfect depiction of that time,' says a nostalgic MA Khayer, who was the in-charge of the Film Division of the Mujibnagar Government's Information Ministry in 1971.

2004-12-16