Graves of the martyrs
I would like to draw attention to the news item titled 'Freedom fighter Lt. Col. Qadir's grave traced after 36 years' published in the last column of page 16 in The Daily Star of 19 January 2008. In 1971, I was about 13 years old and lived with my parents in Chittagong and had near similar experience as Nadeem Qadir. Now I am working at the Directorate General of Health Services, Dhaka.
First, I congratulate Nadeem Qadir (Antu) for going through all the effort to locate his father's final resting place, Dr Mahfuzur Rahman for taking pains to record accurate events of a time that is getting dimmed and The Daily Star for publishing the news.
I was drawn to the said news because the site described appears also to be the final resting place of my father Major A. K. Amirul Islam, AMC who was shot dead by the Pakistani Army on 4 April 1971 and was buried there along with few others. Besides that of my father, I can give the identity of two others my maternal uncle Dr. Khondker Abdul Wadud, and my father's official orderly Zainal.
The Chittagong Polyclinic at Panchalaish Residential Area, Chittagong was then, in 1971, a residential building housing six apartments and was named as 'Shukhtara'. My father was then the DADMS in East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) posted at Chittagong, and one of the apartments in 'Sukhtara' was requisitioned by the then government as our residence.
My father, mother (Latifa Islam, died in 1991), three sisters (Shagufta Jabeen, Wajiha Shireen, & I), and two orderlies lived in the apartment. Sometime after 25 March 1971, my father gave the orderlies the option to leave the house or stay with us and face the consequences as my father was involved in treating the injured freedom fighters. One of the orderlies Nuru opted to leave and accordingly left, while the other orderly Zainal opted to stand by my father.
My maternal uncle, who was the Managing Director of the then Dawood Jute Mills at Chittagong, along with his family (my aunt and three cousin sisters) came to our house in the early morning of 4 April 1971 to discuss with my father about the best way to face the situation. At around 11:30 am, the Pak Army entered our apartment, brought us all out on the street in front of the building, and shot at point blank range at my father and uncle right before our eyes. We, the females were asked by the army personnel to leave the site with just our lives. I went back to the apartment two to three days later, and found everything strewn around, and a pool of blood in the kitchen. The neighbours came forward to see me. They informed me that the Pak army persons had shot the orderly in the kitchen of the house, and that they had buried about seven people including my father, my uncle and the orderly in a mass grave at the site behind 'Sukhtara' beside the main waste water outlet channel. The description of Lt Col Qadir's grave as mentioned in the news appears to fit the site of my father's grave too. It may be mentioned here that both Lt Col Qadir's and our family had social relation. A detail of the sad demise of my father has been published by the Centre for Social Studies, Dhaka University.
Over the years, my mother, my two sisters and I, along with our respective spouses and children, have repeatedly visited the site and prayed for all the departed souls. I came to know that a building was being constructed at the site of the mass grave. I am pleased to know that the location of mass grave has come to the notice of Bangladesh Army, and the construction of the building at the site has been halted.
I hope some sort of memorial will be built at the site for the future generation to recall the history of the glorious liberation war of Bangladesh.
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