Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

MORE than 50 sites of 1971 killing fields and mass graves in Moulvibazar are lying neglected.
   A 1999 decision to erect eight monuments out of 56 such sites is yet to be fulfilled. The ministry concerned abandoned the project after the erection of only one monument.
   Locals said due to negligence and lack of proper care, these places related to the history of Liberation War were on the verge of extinction.
   The erection of such monuments is necessary to make the young generation aware of the country’s hard-earned birth, they said.
   The Pakistani occupation army and their collaborators — Razakars, al-Badrs and al-Shams —had killed many people in Moulvibazar, like other parts of the country, during the War of Liberation in 1971. They caught innocent people and butchered them at these killing fields.
   According to the local unit of the Bangladesh Muktijuddha Sangsad, a forum of the freedom fighters, and administrative sources, with the initiative of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, a joint team of the Bangladesh Army and the administration had selected eight places from 56 killing fields and mass graves found in the district to construct monuments in 1999.
   The selected places are mass grave at the north side of Baronti-Naliuri road at Kamalpur union, mass grave at the southern side of the house of Kamini Dev of village Noria at Kagabola union under the district headquarters, mass grave on the bank of a pond of Hironmoy Das of village Panchgaon under Rajnagar upazila, mass grave on the bank of Hakatirdighi under Kulaura upazila, mass grave at the eastern side of the rail line at Kulaura Railway Station under Kulaura upazila, Saypur mass grave under Barlekha upazila, mass grave at the Shamsernagar Airport under Kamalganj upazila, and Bharaura mass grave under Srimangal upazila.
   The district administration had prepared a list of the land owners of these places, drawn sketch map of the proposed monuments on these places, and taken the initiative to acquire the land in 1999. But later, the ministry gave up the initiative, though a monument had been built on the mass grave at Shamsernagar Airport under Kamalganj upazila.
   Shafiqur Rahman, district commander of the Muktijuddha Sangsad, said most of the killing fields and mass graves were lying even without any bamboo fence.
   The ministry concerned abandoned the project saying it had no sufficient fund to build such monuments, Shafique said.
   Md Jahangeer Kabir, Moulvibazar additional deputy commissioner (general), said there was no initiative to build monuments on the sites of killing fields and mass graves right now.