Blogs

Right Before My Eyes

-Ahmed Bashir
Novelist, Dhaka

On the 7th of April, we came from Moghbazar to Puran Dhaka (Old Dhaka). There was an eerie silence in Moghbazar area by then. It felt like a ghost town - desolate and deserted. From time to time we could hear the sound of Azaan from the mosque next to our house. It felt as if the sound melted itself with the smell of gunpowder.

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.

When hundreds of asses agree to bray for one WAR CRIMINAL'S ASS.

Original: কুখ্যাত জারজ
Translator : Fahmim (ফাহমিম)
Editor: Rikta (রিক্তা)

Momena Begum continued in a monotonous voice,

- I am Momena Begum, wife of Habibur Rahman, daughter of Hazrat Ali Lashkar.
- How old were you?

An incident near the end of the liberation war agitates me even today, it paralyses me. I do not recall the date clearly but it was around the third week of November, 1971. I used to live in the first house on Road. 32, Dhanmondi, Dhaka. It was near 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. I had gone to Azimpur Colony with my own plans. Two of my friends used to live there, Naser Chowdhury, who was a student of the Engineering University back then and a famous goalkeeper in those days; and Santu from the Mohammedan Football Club. We were talking about a lot of things for quite some time - the ongoing liberation war, the freedom of our country, the activities of the freedom fighters, the atrocities of the Pak army and their Bengali collaborators- the Razakars, etc.

The day is getting close to the end…the sunlight is disappearing…

There is a woman running on the beach. She makes marks on the damp sand. How far does she want to go?

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:

"What's your aim in life?"
The boy looks at his mother. She answers, "My soon will be a great engineer."
My teachers used to insist me to pursue engineering as I was good in maths. Not pure mathematics! My mother did say the same thing. And I did not try to make them understand what I really want. Did you try? Will that boy try?