Killing grounds in utter neglect in Lalmonirhat

Over a dozen killing grounds and mass graves in the district where hundreds of Bangalees were massacred by the Pakistan occupation forces during the 1971 Liberation War are heading towards virtual obliteration.

On April 5 in 1971, Pakistan army killed about 600 people in the town and buried them in mass graves beside the railway office at Railway Colony village in the town. 

Soon after the independence, over 200 skeletons, bones and skulls were recovered from the area and the spot became known as Railway Rickshaw Stand Bodhyabhumi (killing ground).

Over 200 people who were fleeing to India met tragic death on April 25, as the Pakistan army opened fire indiscriminately on them near Barobari Bazar in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila.

Nine potters were brutally killed and buried by Pakistani forces At Khochabari village in Lalmonirhat town on April 28, said freedom fighter Syed Ali, a resident of the village.

At least 52 people including two freedom fighters lost their lives in a dreadful fight with the Pakistan army at Saptibari union of Aditmari upazila on June 8, 1971.

There are also mass graves at Saheb Para in Lalmonirhat town, Khedabag in Sadar upazila, Doljor Dola Railway Bridge area, Bhelabari, Polashi and Mohiskhocha villages of Aditmari upazila, Bhotmari and Dolgram villages of Kaliganj upazila, and Goddimari and Barokhata villages of Hatibandha upazila in the district.

"We demand memorials at the mass graves of the martyred people. The memory of the heroic sons of the soil must be kept alive in the mind of future generations,” said Abu Bakkar Siddique, commander of Lalmonirhat Sadar unit of Muktijoddha Sangsad.