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The most tragic night in our history

Junaidul Haque
THE night of March 25, 1971 is the most tragic, and the saddest, in our history. Fierce animals in the form of Pakistani soldiers jumped on the sleeping citizens of Dhaka. Nearly twenty five thousand people were killed in only a fewhours.
Bengalee soldiers, policemen, political workers, students, teachers, rickshawallahs, street people, slum dwell-■ ers - no one were spared. Even Rokeya Hall was mortared. The best minds of the Dhaka University were killed like insects.
I feel that the genocide of March 25, 1971 dug Pakistan's grave. The people of Bangladesh then plunged into a war of freedom with full might. The great crime of killing thousands of innocent Bangladeshis couldn't go unpunished.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, did not leave his residence but asked his associates to go into hiding. He courted arrest to save Dhaka from total destruction. His close associates formed the Bangladesh government in Mujibnagar on April 17, 1971 and suc-cessfully led the liberation war.
Our people were so united and determined that we never had any doubt that we would be free. I remember with pride that, on hearing about the formation of the Bangladesh government over the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, even school kids like us jumped in glee, filling the ether of our village with spontaneous criesofJoy Bangla.
I was in my mid-teens in 1971. My mind was restless with thoughts of the country's future. Our school was closed and I would remain glued to newspapers. I used to walk aimlessly, and worried a lot during those days. I would try to collect news and understand what was going on.
On the day Yahya Khan announced the postponement of the National Assembly session, I was watching the cricket match between the Commonwealth XI and Pakistan. Within moments, part of the western gallery was put on fire, the match was abandoned and Dhaka city was seething with anger.
The crowd was shouting full-throated slogans -- "Joy Bangla," "Prepare bamboo sticks/Make Bangladesh free,’ and "Our thikana is Padma-Meghna-Jamuna." Our national unity then was the best in our
history, and its chief architect was Bangabandhu himself. The widely respected Maulana Bhashani stood behind him like a solid rock. From March 1, Bangladesh was run by Bangabandhu.
I have vivid memories of March 25, 1571“1 was walking through the Nawabpur Road at around noon, sad and thoughtful. Will the Mujib-Yahya talks end positively for us? I saw Nabi Chowdhury, who was a DSP then. He looked worried. He was telling passers-by to go home and remain careful.
He told me the same, smiled wryly and added that the Pakistanis were most angry with the young people of Bangladesh, mainly the students. I am sure he had no idea of the fierce attack that the Pakistanis would launch on the Rajarbag policemen that midnight. Nabi Chowdhury died a few years back. Whenever I think of March 25, 1971 I remember him and his warning.
1 go to my school in the afternoon and meet my friends. We don’t play. We speculate about our future. I read a little in the evening, have an early supper and go to sleep. I miss the massive machine gun firing and the mortar shelling after midnight. My parents were awake. They let me sleep, but they spent a sleepless night trying to understand what was goingon.
At dawn, all of us were awake. We were trying to grasp the magnitude of the genocide. I remember one small incident very clearly. I saw dozens of crows sitting on the electric wires and shivering like anything. Shivering in the warmth of March! The genocide was unprecedented in their eyes too. I have never seen trembling crows before or after March 26,
ia/1. iiidi illuming was iciiaimy me saddest in our history.
We understood that it was a military crackdown and that the Mujib-Yahya talks had failed. We had guessed that the Pakistanis were killing time, but we were "not readylor treachery oi this magnitude." There were rumours galore. Neighbours gathered and talked in fear and worry. Is Bangabandhu alive? Are our fearless student leaders alive? News of the ruthless Shakhari Bazar killings reached us and made us sad.
I heard Yahya Khan say that Sheikh Mujib wanted to break up Pakistan and this "crime" deserved punishment. My young limbs trembled in anger and hatred. Who was the criminal?Who was to face punishment? I suddenly had a clear vision that Pakistan was going to get truncated. Independent Bangladesh would emerge. And the wining and womanising general would be dumped into the dustbin of history.
Bangladesh overcame great suffering, and emerged gloriously as an independent nation on December 16, 1971. Bangabandhu's inspirational leadership, his associates' political wisdom, the great sacrifice of the freedom fighters, and the help of the Indian people and government will be long remembered with gratitude by us.
Unfortunately, our youngsters can't learn the true history of our liberation war from their textbooks. So I shall follow popular writer Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and urge my readers to read the correct history of our liberation war from reliable sources. Why not read our war literature?
The swadhinata poems of Shamsur •
Rahman in his Bondi Shibir Thekey, the brilliant novels of Syed Shamsul Huq, the stories of Hasan Azizul Huq, Rahat Khan, Akhteruzzaman Elius, Mahmudul Huq, and even the popular stories of Humayun Ahmed and Zafar Iqbal. We can read the plays of Syed Shamsul Huq and Selim Al Din. Jibon O Rajnaitik Bastobota is a masterpiece on 1971 by Shaheedul Zahir.
The brilliant memoirs of Justice Abu Saeed Choudhury, Jahanara Imam, Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury and Belal Mohammad deserve our attention too. Also the thought-provoking essays of Serajul Islam Choudhury, Sardar Fazlul Karim,
Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir, Anisuzzaman and the like.
A liberation war is not a mere war. It has a great influence on the psyche and the lives of human beings. Wasn't the best novel of the world. War and Peace, written on war and its effect on the human mind?
I, a modest writer of fiction, also dream of writing a novel on 1971. Till my dream comes true, I shall go on thinking and dreaming about it. I owe it to the martyrs of 1971.
Junaidul Haque writes fiction and essays.