KHULNA, Mar 25: The birth of Bangladesh as an independent nation after a nine-month long bloody war against the oppressive Pakistani rulers and their collaborators was successful through a series of genocides.
Batiaghata genocide is believed to be one of the most heartrending incidents which witnessed the loss of numerous lives. But this incident has not been recorded in the written history of the Liberation War.
On May 19, 1971, the people of Katianagla under Gangarampur union in Batiaghata fled from their houses to take makeshift refuge in neighbouring India.
While talking to this correspondent, Chairman of Batiaghata Sadar union parishad (UP) and freedom fighter Monoranjan Mondal said, "On May 28 of 1971, the people of Ghatlala and Betaga unions under Fakirhat Police Station came to Katianangla on the way to India and faced Mongla-bound Pakistan navy gunboats, but lost their lives with a few to flee away."
Killing of Gurupada Mondal, 45, and his two sons Angshupati Mondal, 20, and Khokon Mondal, 11, and daughter Parul, 5, was the most touching witness of massacres in Baroaria village in Batiaghata,
he said.
Torture was inflicted continuously on Guru Dasi, 35, wife of Gurupada Mondal and another daughter Anjali, 16, at the Razakar camp, which was set up at the residence of Moni Golder during the Liberation War.
Some days before the victory, a team of freedom fighters led by Sheikh Kamruzzaman Tuku evicted the razakar camp and could only rescue mentally imbalanced Guru Dasi but did not find her daughter Anjali there.
A team of razakars led by Barobaria razakar camp commander Halim Ali, Goaghara razakar camp commander Arif Hossain, Habibur Rahman Jomaddar of the village Kalyan Shree under Surkhali union, along with others, continued carnages in the region.
After the victory on December 16, 1971, a new country was born in the world but mentally disabled Guru Dasi started loitering with a stick in the streets of Khulna.
The present government has set up all arrangement for her livelihood and handed over a piece of land for her residence after coming to power in 1996.
Gauranga Nandi, a veteran journalist and Khulna bureau chief of Kaler Kantho wrote in his 'Brihattar Khulna Zilar Muktijuddher Etihas' that there was no official statistics about how many people were killed in Batiaghata in 1971, and yet the massacre was not recorded in the history.
