Saifur Rahman, Baraigram (Natore)

On April 11 in 1971, a brutal killings took place at Dhanaidah of Baraigram Upazila in Natore district and it was the biggest war of resistance against Pak Invader in the district.

80 people were martyred, hundreds of people were injured by bullets. More than 500 houses were burnt. The empty houses were burning at their own pace for 2/3 days. No one had the courage to return home to put out the fire.

The mass graves of Perkol and Dhanaidah stand as witness to the hellish carnage of the war. In the afternoon of April 12, the day after the war, 17 people were buried in a bloody state without washing and shrouding in a ditch next to a pond in Perkol village in front of my eyes. In 1998, the Awami League government built a boundary wall at the site and named it Perkol Mass Grave.

In this grave, 17 dead bodies of Sabir Uddin Sarkar, Shukur Ali, Majet Ali, Jahangir Alam, Sajedar Molla, Abu Taleb, Jan Mohammad, Ilim Saha, Khader Uddin, Baguni Bibi, Rosyka Bibi, Josna Bibi, Jalema Khatun, Aduri Bibi, Jahura Khatun, Achia Khatun, Anjera Khatun were kept at a place. On the day, during the war, the ammunition fired by the Pakistan Army was going overhead. At that time, half a hundred people of the area hid in the Sandil Sarkar pond of Parkol village. Others escaped and hid, but these 17 people failed.

The names of 7 resistance fighters are written in the Dhanaidah mass grave. They are two unidentified EPRs, two Ansar members Mohabbat Ali and Sirajul Islam, three fellow fighters Dulal, Biltu and Shahjahan. They were fighting in Koyen village with heavy weapons. After being surrounded by the Pak Army from behind, they were brutally killed by bayonets. Later Pak Army threw the dead bodies from the bridge to the river bank at the southern end of Dhanaidah Bridge. Dhanaidah Mass Grave was built in 1998 for memory of the victims.

Also, Manoranjan Sheel, Zaina Bibi, Baishtami, of Parkol village, Lacher Uddin, Icharuddin, Abdur Razzak of Pargopalpur village, Jamat Ali, Abdur Rahman, Shahachand, Jagaddin, Rahimuddin, Khezala, Achatan Bibi, of Panchbaria village, Azahar Malitha, Zafir Uddin, Majnu, Anjera, Kalachand, Ramzan Ali, Keramat Ali, Rasheda Bibi, Halima Khatun, Attab Ali, Labin Prang, Abdul Haque, Mahir Uddin, Bahatan Bibi, Nashim Uddin of Dhanaidah village were killed in that war. Many names are also unknown.

The co-fighters of this resistance war, bir freedom fighter (later) Abdus Sattar and Osman Ali Sarkar of Parkol village, who were shot and injured, said these things on April 7. They also said that on receiving the news of the arrival of Pak Army through Aricha-Nagarbari Ghat, under the leadership of local Awami League leader and then Major Abdur Rashid, trees were felled on the 6 km road from Rajapur to Dhanaidah on the Nagarbari-Rajshahi highway and preparations were made for resistance war in Dhanaidah from the morning of April 9.

The next day on 10 April, fourty EPR and Ansar forces came to the Panchbaria High School ground with weapons and war equipment by jeeps and trucks. Then they made 16 bunkers of U, Y, V, L pattern in the bushes on the banks of the Khalishadanga river in front of the highway and Dhanaidah Bridge with the help of the local youth.

Seeing these arrangements of war, from the morning of April 11, children, women and old people of the area left their houses and took shelter in safe places. On the other hand, the Pak Army slowly moved from Pabna towards Garmati Muchipara area at around 12 noon by removing the fallen trees on the road. Then a fierce war began between the EPR and the Pak Army. Pak forces failed to break the resistance chain of EPR forces in the face-to-face battle and then changed the battle strategy at around 8 pm.

They are divided into 3 parts in a Y pattern. One group entered Parkol, Panchbaria, Maheshpur, Koyen villages from the north side of the highway, the second group entered Dhanaidah village from the south side of the highway, set fire to houses and shot and killed the people on sight.

The third party moved slowly along the highway, clearing the tree trunks and at the Dhanaidah Bridge.

In the meantime, two EPR, two Ansar and three fellow soldiers were arrested and brutally killed by the Paka Army that night.