Collected Stories from ISPAD Journal Of Indian Sub continent Partition document, Fall 2023
Bangladesh Liberation War, 1971.
Md. Sahib Ali, Senior Inspector provided us with some information that he collected from a Janitor named Pardeshi. The Inspector said that on the West side of Malitola which was on road that exited from Tantiabazar all the temples were destroyed by heavy shelling . A janitor named Pardeshi collected the corpses from the locality. According to the words of Pardeshi, “I saw the dead body of a young beautiful girl. It had a lot of wounds… the vaginal tract was severely infected. Flesh from her hips was removed by some sharp weapons. I next saw the dead body of a 10 year old girl. She was very beautiful. Her skin was like fresh apple, although her body was ridden with bullets. I also saw the naked body of a young girl on the roof top of the Rokeya Hall. There were no bullet injuries on her body or any other signs of wounds. A Pakistani soldier was on duty with me. I could him how did she die, and he laughed loudly and said, “We Pakistani soldiers gang raped her to death.” Soon, her body began to bloat. Her eyes were wide open. Her hair was torn form her skull. Her vagina was full of dried blood. Her breasts were pale with wounds. I also saw the corpse of a Hindu Professor, his wife, and two sons in the truck from the second floor of Sivabari in Dhaka University. We packed three truck loaded with corpses and took them to the Buriganga river on March 30th. We also picked up several decomposed bodies, dead bodies from the Tejgaon Madrasas and beheaded bodies. We found the bayonet ridden body of the dead Hindu Professor Jogesh Chandra Ghosh, owner of Sadhana Oushadalaya, a Pharmacy, and threw it in the Swamibad canal.
An eye witness sub inspector Mohammad Salehuzumman said that the Pakistani army caught the women on the streets, brought them to the camp, undressed and raped them and kill them with sharp knives, then cut off tier hair, breasts, and flesh from the hips. Some even were cut into small pieces, and iron rods penetrated into their vagina, some were burnt to death while the army stood laughing.
Janitor Pardeshi said that he saw around 100 dead bodies of Bengali men, all young and healthy, in the morgue of Mitford hospital. Each of the bodies had multiple wounds from bullets. He said he lifted 4 charred dead bodies on the truck. These corpses were lying in the Ramna Kali Bari (Ramna Kali Temple) courtyard and some were dumped in the deep hole garbage at Dhalpur. I entered every house at Sakhari Bazar, a Hindu indigenous minority neighborhood, and saw dead bodies of men, women, young old, kids children, piled one on top of the other. Some of the corpses has begun to rot. Most of the women were undressed and their breasts cut off. Sticks were penetrated into their vagina. I saw burnt dead bodies. They were strewed all over near the river bank (ghat) of Millbarak. Several bodies were tied with ropes. I took off the rope from the bodies and saw that these were young and healthy men. Their eyes and bodies were tied with ropes. Many bodies were disfigured by bayonetts and batons and several corpses had crushed skulls. The heart was pulled from one corpse. I saw several undressed beautiful bodies of young women, with several wounds. Their hands and eyes were bound by ropes. Each body has several bullet marks. Their face, chest and vagina were tied strongly. I took two trucks of dead bodies and put a70 bodies in the Dharpur garbage holes. I lifted about 50 bodies from Ramna Kali bari (Hindu Temple of Kali) of all the people who took shelter there.
Janitor Rabekah Khatun , a Muslim, described Pakistan military officers gang rape of captured women. “They would cut their breast and flesh of their hips with sharp knives; they enjoyed cutting vagina, anus and breasts. They told the naked and wounded women to go upstairs to the headquarters and forced them to stand there fully naked. Many women were hung by tying their hair with thick wires. They used to severely hit these naked women with baton. Some of the officers cut their breasts. Some enjoyed penetrating sticks into their vagina. Some enjoyed cutting their hip slowly with sharp knives. Some of them used to make wound on the breast of naked women with their teeth. If any women shouted, they would be instantly killed by penetrating long iron rod inside their vaginas… Tahmina Begum, a Muslim woman said, “…at the end of month Srabana (mid July) — all the Hindus of Bagerhat town who were still there, were forced to convert to Islam. A few of them were also killed. Then the army penetrated the rural areas where village after village they started to convert Hindus to Islam. I myself, my husband, children, father, mother, uncle, aunt, their children were converted to Islam. Rajakars or Razakars used to capture Hindu women and handed them over to Pak army.” (ISPAD, p, 12).
Ms. Reba Rani Nath said, “…they picked up 15/20 women in a vehicle. The males were compelled to stay separately and were killed. Only females escaped. I saw 50/60 women there. The Pakistani army used to have sex in many ugly ways. Although all of us were Hindus, but we said we were Muslims. Many women were brought here. Then we were handed over to the Rajakars by Pak army. One Rajakar took me to his house.”
Rahim Azad said, a Hindu women names Bhagirathi was helping the freedom fighters secretly. She was caught by the Rajakars and handed over to Pak army. One the market day Bhagirathi was brought in the army camp for inquiry by the Pakistani army. They undressed her publicly. Then her legs were tied with two ropes and these ropes were fixed with a jeep, which then they drove. The army enjoyed this scene very much. When the jeep came back to the army quarter, she was still alive. Now they tied two of her legs to two jeeps and then the two jeeps were driven on the opposite directions and Bhagirathi’s body was torn to pieces. (ISPAD, 13).
