Cruel to the core
The words "Nazi forces" bring back memories of the horror unleashed at their concentration camps. What the Pakistani forces and their Bihari cohorts did at the Saidpur Railway Workshop in 1971 was as grisly as those events of World War II.
The marauding Pakistani forces and their collaborators massacred at least 177 Bangalees -- all employees of the workshop. Most of the victims were thrown into large boilers and furnaces used for melting iron. Some were knifed to death while some killed by shooting.
"The atrocity at the Saidpur Railway Workshop was one of the worst of its kind," said renowned Liberation War researcher Bir Pratik Lt Col (retd) Quazi Sajjad Ali Zahir.
While recalling the barbarity at the workshop, one of the survivors said Biharis outnumbered Bangalees in Saidpur during the time of the war.
On April 15 in 1971, he saw some Biharis tied some of their Bangalee colleagues with rope and dragged them on the ground for several feet.
"I heard their screams; they were in agonising pain. Later, I learnt that all of them were burnt alive. They were put into a furnace while they were still alive," said 69-year-old Siyam Dostogir, a former employee of the workshop.
During the first week of April, several Biharis had abducted Siyam's father Ayub Hossain, who also used to work at the workshop. "I've not seen my father since then," Siyam told The Daily Star recently.
The struggle for liberation began earlier in March and soon its waves spread all across the country. The situation in Saidpur, a calm town of Nilphamari district, was no different.
Like elsewhere, Bangalees in Saidpur started non-cooperation after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered his Historic March 7 Speech in Dhaka. They also formed all-party movement committees.
Local Urdu-speaking Biharis, most of whom had migrated to Saidpur after the Partition in 1947, were in favour of Pakistan. They even formed a committee to "Save Pakistan", said Hafizur Rahman, a former principal of Moshiur Rahman Degree College in Saidpur. Hafizur is also a member of the editorial committee of a book, titled "Muktijuddhe Rongopur", which describes the brutal killings at the railway workshop built in 1870.
On March 23 in 1971, the Republic Day of Pakistan, Bangalees hoisted the flag of Bangladesh at the workshop. Biharis, on the other hand, hoisted the Pakistani flag, he said.
The same day, the Biharis surrounded the Bangalees in different places of Saidpur and took them hostages. As the news spread, around 5,000 Bangalee villagers, led by local political leader Mahtab Beg, started marching towards Saidpur from nearby Chirirbandar upazila in Dinajpur.
However, several Bangalees were killed as Pakistani forces and their Bihari collaborators opened fire on the protesters. Mahtab was badly injured. Later, some of the collaborators swooped on him with knives and killed him, said locals, including Hafizur.
The local Biharis became even more brutal after the killings, said Hafizur, adding that the Pakistani occupation forces' "Operation Searchlight" on March 25 night further fuelled the fears of the Bangalees in Saidpur.
On March 26 evening, all Bangalee officials and workers were ordered to report to work at the workshop the next morning. They were told that they would face dire consequences if they did not follow the order.
The Bangalee employees had to comply with it, said Siyam, a former employee.
Liberation War researcher Sajjad, who was awarded "Swadhinata Padak" for his outstanding contribution to the war, said on March 27 morning some Biharis killed MA Aziz, one of the Bangalee officials, at the gate of the workshop. He was attacked with sharp knives. Five more Bangalees were killed in a similar manner within minutes.
Locals said most of the killings at the workshop took place between April and June in 1971.
"It was cruel to the core. They threw people alive into three large boilers and furnaces meant for melting iron. The victims' screams could be heard from a large distance," Sajjad said.
The killer gang included Matin Hashmi, Mohammad Habbu, Mohammad Zahid and other non-Bangalee workshop workers. "These heartless killers were directly patronised by the Pakistani army in Saidpur Cantonment … Biharis did not do anything without instructions and assistance from the cantonment," he said.
Lutfor Rahman, whose father Osman Goni, was a worker of the workshop said he could clearly recall that his father left home on April 4.
Osman did not come back.
"Later, we heard from his colleagues that Bihari employees killed my father by throwing him in a furnace," Lutfor said, adding that his father begged and cried but the killers showed no mercy.
Talking to The Daily Star, Zoidul Islam, divisional superintendent of Saidpur Railway Workshop, said they prepared a list of 177 employees killed in 1971 and that most of them were burnt alive.
The workshop authorities built a memorial to honour those killed.
The martyrs include -- Mortuza Ali, Amrita Mondol, Abdul Gafur, Ram Chandra Roy, Omiya Bhushan, Kala Mia, Hasmotullah, Md Ishaque, Sheikh Mahatabuddin, Arfan Mia, and Boshiruddin.
Sajjad said so many innocent people were killed as the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators committed unprecedented war crimes in 1971.
"We must keep a record of those killings. It's important because our new generation should know about the price Bangalees had to pay to have a country of their own," Sajjad added.
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