মুক্তিযুদ্ধ

In Front of the Loved Ones

- Nazma Begum
Housewife, Dhaka

26 March 1971, Bangladesh Water Development Board, O&M Circle, Sylhet. We used to live in the Superintendent Engineer’s house. I had sent Tajul Islam, our servant, to bring some eggs for breakfast that morning. He returned with the news that a curfew had been declared and a rickshaw-puller and a local betel-leaf seller had been shot to death by the Pakistani soldiers. A little later we observed from our balcony that many people gathered at a place called Maniratila. I wondered what the gathering was about. How many were being shot to death by the barbaric aggressor army? We were panic-stricken and remained at home. Curfew was being enforced in Sylhet from dawn to dusk almost everyday. Hence, people had much difficulty with their everyday lives. My husband, shaheed Altaf Hossain would do some grocery for our daily meals every evening after the curfew was lifted. Our lives carried on like this.

This is from the translation project some of us are working on of the book 1971: Dreadful Experiences (১৯৭১: ভয়াবহ অভিজ্ঞতা). The book is a collection of witness accounts to 1971 Liberation War and the Independence of Bangladesh by the country's educationists, writers, professionals. The book is edited by Rashid Hayder and was first published on the Victory Day of 1989.

[i]The purpose of this post is documentation only. I have been looking for the list of the 195 Pakistani war criminals talked about all the time in public forum. A quick Google search took me to a discussion in a Google group which contains a list of 200.

On June 24, 2013, Bdnews24.com ran a news about the visit of one of the investigators of the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh. He was investigating the involvement of Ashrafuzzaman Khan in war crime during the 1971 liberation war which gave birth to Bangladesh. Here is an excerpt from the news about his crime:

[Note: This is a translation of the article তথ্য’বিনা মিথ্যা বোনা by Kaustubh, originally posted in Sachalayatan on 27-02-2013. While the facts were easy to translate, it is difficult to capture the essence and wit of the article in English. The translators strongly recommend reading the original article if you are can read Bengali.]

All we can send the following letter as protest against the article published by Economist.

You can also edit it before sending. Path forward, we can with help of law-years take the matter to the press council of UK and USA.

Let us work to make Economist say Sorry for their article.

An attempt at translating this wonderful article "আন্তর্জাতিক অভিজ্ঞতার আলোকে জামাত নিষিদ্ধকরণ রূপরেখা" by হাসিব

Since the establishment of International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) to prosecute the war criminals of Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Jamaat-e-Islami is desperately trying to foil the trial in order to save its top leaders, who are indicted for war crimes.

Selon un article du 28 février sur www.rfi.fr, l’internationalité du ‘tribunal international des crimes’ du Bangladesh est contestable sous le prétexte que ce n’est pas supervisé par l’ONU. Ce commentaire est lourdement erroné.

All over the world, media is spreading different type of propaganda regarding the ongoing mass movement in Bangladesh, of course to serve interest of specific group. It is now important to stand against the false presentation of history and intentional misinterpretation of our movement.