The erosion of democracy became most pronounced between 2014 and 2024.

Today marks the first Victory Day of Bangladesh being celebrated without the existence of Henry Kissinger

It was like a radiant dawn shining after a long and dreadful night. The cool wind of freedom was blowing in mid-December 1971.

It was a cold winter night. Some 75 freedom fighters were deftly making their way in a quiet village called Betiara; only the whooshing sound of breeze blowing through bamboo bushes and trees and the chirping of insects were disturbing the eerie silence.

“…Then after dark, a tentative ‘Joy Bangla’ in the back streets. Older men came out and persuaded the lads back into their homes; ‘there is still a curfew’. Then a more determined ‘Joy Bangla’. The Mukti Bahini had taken over the streets.

October, 1971. The war waged by the Pakistani occupation army on Bangalees had just entered its eighth month.

Mass graves and killing fields of Liberation War in Dhaka are hard to find now as they are almost lost owing to lack of efforts to preserve these sites where many martyrs were buried or thrown in the marshes, canals and rivers after being killed, or were burnt alive.

Dhaka University (DU) and cultural lighthouse organisation Chhayanaut are celebrating this year's Victory Day jointly.

In line with the previous years, this year Liberation War Museum has arranged weeklong programme to commemorate Victory Day.

Writer, historian and war crimes researcher Shahriar Kabir talks about...