After hearing Priya yesterday, I thought of reposting this from October 2025:
2001: Daulat Khan Sub district, Bhola, Bangladesh.
Mrs. Prabha Rani (40, a Hindu woman), wife of Paresh Chandra Mistry, talked about the ordeal of her family while tears were streaming down her face. She kept her eyes down while speaking in a subdued voice. Hundreds of Hindu mothers in Daulat Khan subdivision of Bhola district had the same story. When Prabha Rani finished talking her husband Paresh Chandra Mistri wanted to say something. He only had a shawl covering his the upper part of his body and stared blankly at the sky. He tried to hide the tears in his eyes. He said that he felt helpless and thinks he has no sense of honor left. He related how the Islamists after looting everything, tortured his wife, daughter, and daughter in law in front of their eyes. He also said that his wife hid in the pond and kept her nose above the water, but the attackers found her and brought her in the house. His daughter-in-law hid in the betelnut grove with the six-month-old baby. Since the baby was crying, the Islamists could trace her and bring her into the house and tortured her. They gang raped their college going girl. All the while some of them held a Ramda (knife, sword) to the neck of the men. Further, they said that all their utensils were either taken or broken, and they had nothing to cook in, so they borrowed some from their neighborhood. (Samvad, October 23, 2001). (Ratneshwar Bhattacharya, “Sankhyalaghu Bitarane Bangladesh Analapito Upakhyan”, “Stories of Ethnic Cleansing of Minorities from Bangladesh” Ratneshwar Bhattachary, summarized, quoted, and translated by Rinita Mazumdar)/
