USTC encroaches on Pahartali Baddhyabhumi
Authorities say allegation is to tarnish image of the university and its vice chancellor
University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC) constructing an academic building on the site of historic Pahartali mass killing ground.Photo: STAR
A private university is constructing an academic building on the land of Pahartali Baddhyabhumi, the largest mass killing ground of the War of Liberation in the port city. University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC) has already set up iron framed structures to construct the building ignoring resentment among the people. Different political and cultural organisations and professional organisations continued agitation against construction of the building. They sought interference of the chief adviser as well as the army chief in the matter to preserve the historic site. The protesters urged the government to take immediate measures to stop encroachment on the land to protect the memory of the War of Liberation. They also demanded proper investigation into the corruption during the BNP-led alliance government in cancellation of a project in this regard. Refuting the allegation of encroachment on the land of Pahartali Baddhyahumi, USTC Director (Academy) Dr Jalal Uddin said they have bought the land legally. He said the agitation is a part of an intentional move to tarnish image of the institute and its Vice Chancellor National Professor Dr Nurul Islam. Pakistani occupation army and their collaborators use to take the freedom loving people to the spot near Foy's Lake at Pahartali in the port city and killed them during the War of Liberation. The most tragic incident occurred when Pakistani army killed several thousand unarmed people of the adjoining railway colonies and others on November 10 in 1971. Prof Dr Gazi Salehuddin, coordinator of Ekattorer Baddhyabhumi Smriti Sangrakkhan O Bastobayan Parishad and also a resident of the area, said non-Bengali, people popularly known as Biharis, of Pahartali was angry on the Bangalees as they played active role in different political and cultural movements during the pre-liberation period. A riot ensued between the Bangalees and the Biharis on March 3 over removal of a signboard written in Urdu of a shop by the local students, he added. Witnesses said Pakistani forces became mad when they were facing strong resistance by the freedom fighters across the country. They said four unidentified dead bodies were found at a hilly spot near the present Pahartali Eye Hospital on the night of November 9. On the following day Pakistani army, members of AL Badr, AL Shams and Shanti Committee called hundreds of local residents of Wireless Colony, Master Lane, Shaheed Lane, Goanese Quarter, Punjabi lane, Firoj Shah Colony and Saraipara out of their houses and took them to Baddhyabhumi to recognise the bodies. The occupation forces asked them to line up at gunpoint and slaughtered and shot them as they failed to recognise the bodies. Gazi Kamaluddin, brother of Dr Salehuddin, said he was also taken with his uncle Ali Hossain and others to the place. Kamaluddin, a five-year-old boy in 1971, said he managed to escape while his father Ali Karim, a railway staff, and uncle did not return. While narrating the incident, he said before slaughtering them the killers tied the eyes and hands of many victims from back. The miscreants stabbed the victims indiscriminately and dumped some bodies underground while some were burnt spraying gunpowder and petrol, the witness said. The murderers also forced many passengers of Chittagong-Nazirhat and Chittagong-Dohazari trains to get down for killing at the nearby rail track, they witnesses said. No step was taken to preserve the site by the governments before the Awami League government in 1999 took initiative in this regard. Earlier in 1998 A team led by Prof Salehuddin met the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina and urged to her to preserve it. Cultural ministry allocated Tk 94 lakh to acquire 1.754 acres of land the following year after Hasina's order in this regard. But the USTC authorities said they have procured the land from its owner in 2002 and filed a case against the notice of acquiring the land by the government. They said the university authorities managed the higher authorities in the four-party alliance government of the ministries concerned to stop the acquisition of the land. Later, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs ordered the district administration to refund the money back in May in 2006, sources at the district administration said. Additional Deputy Commissioner (Land/Acquisition) Tajul Islam confirmed about the allocation and refund of the money. He said the ministry ordered to refund the money in 2006 as the USTC authorities donated some 11 kathas of land to it after a negotiation. A memorial was set up in a casual manner on the donated land beside the actual spot without any background history, said Kamrul Islam Badal, secretary of Sangrakkhan Parishad. Dr Jalal said the university has donated the land showing respect to the martyrs and the ministry received it as the legal owner. Leaders of the Parishad questioned legality of cancelling the project taken by the AL government for preserving the killing ground. Expressing her resentment over the negligence of the government in this regard, Begum Mushtari Shafi, wife of a martyr and coordinator of Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee Chittagong, demanded preservation of all the liberation war mass killing fields throughout the country and an end to encroachment on these sites.
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