1971 War Killing Fields: Revered but not preserved

An unceremonious monument covered by bushes on three sides is barely visible from the adjacent road. At first sight during our visit in October, it was difficult to make out that the small structure is in fact the memorial of the notorious Pahartoli killing field.

During the Liberation War, the Pakistan army and their Bihari collaborators killed at least 10,000 people in this killing field on AK Khan Road in Chattogram, according to genocide researcher Prof Chowdhury Shahid Kader who documented this massacre in his book titled Pahartoli Genocide.

One of the biggest mass killings in the entire Chattogram district was committed on November 10, 1971, on this very ground. After the war, 1,100 human skulls were recovered from just one of the pits here. The skulls are now preserved in a museum in Chattogram cantonment. 

The November 10 massacre lasted from 10:00am to 3:00pm as members of Pakistan army's Pioneer Force and their Bihari collaborators kidnapped men, women and children from Wireless Colony, Pahartoli Punjabi Line, Bahadur Shah Colony and Firoz Shah Colony and shot or slaughtered them there, according to the 8th volume of Bangladesher Swadhinata Juddho Dalilpatro.

The main campus of the University of Science and Technology, Chittagong (USTC), now stands on the killing field.

"The site where an academic building of the university is being constructed is part of the killing field, where thousands were massacred. The government could have preserved the killing field if it were sincere about it. But the government failed to do so," Gazi Kamal Uddin, whose father and uncle were killed there, told The Daily Star.

Considering its historical significance, the Supreme Court in 2014 ordered the government to acquire the land to build a memorial there. Nine years on, the government has yet to carry out the apex court order.

Like the Pahartoli killing field, many other sites of genocide and torture centres in Dhaka are currently under the occupation of various individuals and entities.

"From courts to various government offices, there is hardly any authorities where we did not go and request them to preserve the Pahartoli killing field. But the government failed to resolve the issue even after so many years," said eminent historian and genocide researcher Prof Muntassir Mamoon.

THE WAIT IS ON  

Researchers, relatives of war martyrs and locals have long been demanding that the government preserve the Pahartoli killing field, one of the genocide sites that bears the hallmark of the Pakistan army's atrocities on civilians.

Nearly three decades after liberation, the Prime Minister's Office in two separate letters in December 1998 and February 1999 instructed the cultural affairs ministry and the Chattogram deputy commissioner's office to acquire the land to build a Liberation War Complex there. 

The Complex would include a main stambha, a circular wall, a flag stand and alter base and a central yard, similar to the one in Rayer Bazar Boddhobhumi in Dhaka.

The government also allocated Tk 94 lakh for the acquisition of 1.754 acres of the land, and in 2003, a land acquisition notice was served on the owners, according to court documents. 

By that time, however, the ownership had changed. In May 2002, the USTC authorities bought the land from its previous owners to build a university and a hospital. So the USTC authorities challenged the land acquisition order in a Chattogram court, but the court in November 2002 asked them not to build any structure there.

The matter then rolled into the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, which put an injunction on the lower court order in 2003.

This allowed the USTC authorities to continue with the construction, although the Chattogram Development Authority asked it not to build any structure on the site and instructed it to get clearance from the Liberation War affairs ministry first.

However, following negotiations with the USTC, the Liberation War affairs ministry in 2005 decided to build a monument on 20 decimals of land donated by the university authorities. Subsequently, making a U-turn, the ministry revoked its original land acquisition order, and began constructing the monument on a small scale.

After a prolonged court battle, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 2014 ruled that the Liberation War affairs ministry's decision to abandon the project and revoke the land acquisition order was unlawful.

The SC also ordered the authorities to resume the process to acquire the 1.754-acre land to build a monument there, and pay the "entitled compensation" to the USTC authorities, the current land owner.

USTC Registrar Dilip Barua told The Daily Star on Sunday that the Liberation War affairs ministry never spoke with them about the SC verdict.

"This land is a property of the USTC. We bought this land legally. Our founder Dr Nurul Islam even donated 20 decimals of land to build a memorial there, which has already been built," he said.

Md Jahangir Alam, deputy secretary of the Liberation War affairs ministry, said they wrote to the Chattogram deputy commissioner's office twice, but there has not been any progress.

He added that they even allocated funds for the land acquisition twice, but they took back the money as the acquisition was not done within the stipulated time.

Chattogram Deputy Commissioner Abul Bashar Mohammad Fakhruzzaman said, "We sent a fresh request to the ministry for fund allocation. We are trying our best to acquire the land."

THE LOST KILLING FIELDS IN DHAKA

Throughout the war, the Pakistan army and their local collaborators including Razakar and Al Badr Bahini committed genocide across Dhaka as well. According to researchers, there are 76 mass graves and killing fields in the capital, 27 of them in Mirpur alone.

According to a list by the Liberation War affairs ministry, the government has so far built memorials on only seven of the 76 killing fields -- five in Keraniganj, one in Rayer Bazaar and another in Azimpur.

Not a single killing field in Mirpur has been preserved.

In Mirpur-1, for example, two wells near the shrine of Monir Uddin Shah witnessed a horrific genocide. After the war, locals discovered the wells filled with dead bodies. During a clean-up drive in 1991, City Corporation workers found numerous human skulls and bones there.

Both wells have vanished, The Daily Star found during a visit last month.

The site of one well is now occupied by a high-rise. Construction of another building is currently underway on the site of the other well.

The Kalapani killing field in Mirpur 12 saw the most horrific genocide in Dhaka, but it has yet to be preserved. The entire Kalapani killing field is now a residential area.

Many notorious torture centres in Dhaka also remain unrecognised. Nakhalpara's MP Hostel is one of them. The fifth charge against Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed and eighth charge against Motiur Rahman Nizami involved tortures committed there. Both got life sentence for the war crimes there.

The MP Hostel is now a residential complex for lawmakers. There is no sign or plaque commemorating the atrocities on the compound.

The sixth complaint against Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed was related to his war crimes at Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute. He was given death sentence for the atrocities there. But the centre was never recognised as such.

"Everyone knows about the killing fields in Mirpur. But the government could not preserve any of them. It is an absolute shame for the ministry, and humiliation of the memory of our martyrs," said Dr MA Hasan, a freedom fighter and genocide researcher.

Contacted, Liberation War Affairs Minister Mozammel Haque said, "We don't' have any plan to build monuments in every killing field at this point, but the ministry will consider building some memorials in the killing fields in Mirpur upon completion of the ongoing projects."