<i>Demra massacre day today</i>

Today is Demra massacre day.
On May 13 during the 1971 Liberation War, Pakistan occupation army with the help of their local collaborators killed around eight hundred people at Rupshi and Bausgari villages under Demra union of Faridpur upazila in Pabna district, said elderly people of the area.
“It was early hours on Baishakh 30, perhaps Friday. The occupation army led by local collaborators entered the village through the Boral River and cordoned Bausgari and Rupsi villages,” said Md Ainul Haque, a retired primary school teacher.
Bodies of several hundred people lay scattered as the Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators let loose a reign of terror through killings, arson and looting in the area, he said.
Many others, injured during the brutalities, are still bearing the tragic memory, villagers said, adding that the occupation army and rajakars targeted the village as it was a Hindu majority area and a large number of people from other places took shelter there.
“Freedom fighters have been demanding setting up a memorial in honour of the martyrs in Demra. But nothing has been done during the last 38 years,” Md Moniruzzaman Moni, commander of Faridpur upazila Muktijoddha Sangsad, told this correspondent yesterday.