PALASH. Narsingdf. Dec 11: "A banana plant saved me and rny entire family when the Pakistan army killed 14 of my family members just ten days before victory." a still shaken Abul Kashem of Atiagaon of the Palash thana said looking back to the killing orgy on December 6 of 1971. reports BSS.

Abul Kashem said that it was twilight when the Pakistan army came to their houses, lined up 17 persons and sprayed bullets on them. His wife, and his two sons were hiding in a trench that was dug by his brother who died in the killing spree. They were saved when a tin from the rubble of their house, set on fire by the Pak army covered the trench. A banana plant which fell over the tin covering them added to army's conviction that none could be under the plant.

"The army was standing on the tin firing at the lined up relatives of mine who had been hiding in a mud house when the army raided our houses," Abul Kashem recalls. Three of my relatives, one baby boy and two of my brothers, were saved by a miracle.

The baby boy. a nephew, fell into a nearby pond when his mother was hit by the bullet, A dog saved the boy by pulling him out of the pond." Kashem said, "two of my brothers fainted Just before the firing and so the army took them as dead. Thus they were saved."

Many like Abul Kashem in this thana where two hundred people were killed still remember that evening with heavy hearts remembering how innocent near one who were killed by the occupation forces. The Pak Army also killed 13 people in Kalipara and Ghagra bringing the total deaths of the three villages to 27.

The Pakistan Army also killed five people on the bank of the river Shitalakhya. Giasud-din. one of the lucky survivors of that brutal killing of Ghagra village, said he was taken away from his house on the evening of December 6 and linedup with other villagers who were later on shot. I received only a bullet on my leg but the army thought that all of us have died so they left us there. Giasuddin said, adding that nearby villagers later saved him.

The villagers mostly fled from their houses immediately after army took position in a local Jute mill. But before they left they buried the dead in three mass graves.

Those who survived the brutal killings say that during the last 28 years nobody has ever tried to find out the real facts about the massacre. They complain that it looks like the nation is already about to forget the supreme sacrifices their relatives made just before the nation won independence.

However, the supreme sacrifices of the villagers have Inspired their next generation to form a 'Naboprajanma Mukti-joddha Sangsad." (New Generation Freedom Fighters Council). The organiser of the council Syed Javed Hossain told BSS that after the Ivar of liberation Father of the Nation Banga-bandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sanctioned grant of Taka 2000 for each Shaheed family of the villages. But since the death of Bangabandhu, the martyered families seemed to have become a 'forgotten chapter in the history of the Liberation War.’ he complains.