Chattogram woke before dawn to the roar of fire and shuddering steel -- an electric transformer here, a petrol pump there -- until, within an hour, it became a city of explosions.

The royal family handed over 33 rifles and ammunition from their own collection to the freedom fighters

Across the villages in and around Shibpur in Narsingdi, a fierce guerrilla force rose during the Liberation War. Formed at the initiative of the Purbo Bangla Somonnoy Committee of communist revolutionaries and led by leftist student leader Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, it came to be known simply as the Mannan Bhuiyan Bahini.

Throughout the Liberation War, the oil depots along the Buriganga River in Narayanganj became sites of unspeakable horror.

In the wide waters of the Kishoreganj haor, where the tall grasses stand like watchmen, an unlikely guerrilla force rose during Bangladesh’s Liberation War under the leadership of Abdul Motalib Basu, once the feared “Bhorsa Dakat”.

In the summer of 1971, as the people of Bangladesh waged a desperate fight for freedom, two foreign voices -- one British, one American -- rose in defiance against the brutal atrocities unfolding thousands of miles from their own homelands.

On March 24, 1971, the day before the Pakistani army unleashed the infamous “Operation Searchlight,” its top brass flew to Chattogram Cantonment from Dhaka.

The floating guava markets in the southern districts of Jhalakathi, Barishal and Pirojpur are so picturesque that they have in recent years started drawing tourists, along with the traders.

Naib Uddin Ahmed alias Manik Mia, an internationally reputed photographer, preserved some of the most striking scenes from the Liberation War of 1971 with his camera -- scenes of torture, aggression, and grave injustice.

History is complicated; simplifying it is the work of politicians. My research on Bangladesh challenges the national memory of the 1971 war, as represented at the Liberation War Museum.

The history of Liberation War must be honoured.

Any argument about the freedom fighters' quota has turned so contentious that the discussion tends to revolve around the advocate more than whatever merit the argument itself might have.

Our Liberation War is something we are proud to talk about, read about, and reminisce about but have not done much research on.

The relevance of Munier’s work today is owing to how he related with his language, Bangla.

His name was Shafi Imam Rumi. Born on 29 March, 1951 Rumi was barely 20 years of age in 1971. This larger-than-life character is one of many who embraced martyrdom in their attempt to gift our precious freedom. Rumi had secured third position in the matriculation exam under the national education board in 1968. In 1971, he just got admitted to BUET (Engineering College at that time) and was already enrolled into IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology). Just one flight and he could have been away from the war, but Shafi Imam Rumi chose not to.

Through the Liberation War of 1971, the people of this region wanted to establish a state that would not be built in the model of Pakistan. Fifty-two years later, can we say we have achieved that goal?

Bangladesh was supposed to be a country run by its people, but we are dangerously moving towards a country being run by a coterie.

How should a nation memorialise its history?

Pakistan is the metaphor of everything Bangladesh doesn't want to be.

On this day in 1971, Bangladesh was liberated from the Pakistan occupation forces following a bloody nine-month war. These pictures were taken in December, 1971.