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Words unsaid, wounds deep

Biranganas ache in silence in a Naogaon village scarred by horrific memories of 1971; no state recognition for its 25 women raped and tortured, 52 men killed during the Liberation War
Anwar Ali
“This can’t be said; I can’t say it. You know what they did to the women.”
Niva Rani Paul, now in her 70s, was recalling what is the most horrific episode of her life and also of Ataikula village in Naogaon’s Raninagar upazila.
It was on April 25, 1971.
“The Punjabis had surrounded our village. I was with my husband. Bursting into our room, three men picked up my husband. I was then a mother of two children. Two men held me tight; I could not run away,” she said.
For this conversation, she took this correspondent to one of her neighbours’ house in the village, where only Hindu communities live. Its inhabitants had emptied the house on her request.
While narrating the event that shattered her life five decades back, shehung her head with her eyes welling up from time to time.
Niva is among at least 35 Hindu women of the village who were listed by local authorities in September last year as tortured and raped by the Pakistani forces during the Liberation War.
He husband, Akanda Chandra Paul, is one of the 52 men massacred in the village on April 25.
In 2019, the government recognised 10 of the 35 women and awarded them with the title of Birangana. Four of the 10 died before the recognition, and only one, Bani Rani Paul, received the guard of honour upon her death, four months after the recognition, villagers said.
Of the other 25, eight have already died, and most of the remaining 17 are not doing too well as their ancestral profession of pottery is dying out.
Yet they are mostly unwilling to speak up for their right when an official recognition could earn them some state allowance or support at this age, especially when the country is celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Independence.
Niva Rani too is struggling, along with her two sons, as they survive on pottery, which was also the profession of her husband.
According to historian Prof Muntassir Mamoon,four lakh women were tortured and raped during the war but the government acknowledges only two lakh, mostly Hindus.
“Many of these great women also do not speak up due to social stigma,” Prof Muntassir, also the author of “Birangana 1971”, also said.
He suggested the government should speed up the process of recognising all the women who made sacrifices during the war and at the same time, and adopt a strategy to keep their identities secret where it is necessary.
In October 2015, the government in line with a High Court ruling decided to recognise the Biranganas as women freedom fighters.
Officially recognised Biranganas are entitled to a monthly allowance of Tk 12,000 and a special quota in government jobs and benefits for their children and grandchildren.
In the last five years, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs recognised only 422 Biranganas as women freedom fighters.
The War Crimes Facts Finding Committee led by Dr MA Hassan recorded that at least 1.62 lakh women were raped and another 1.31 lakh Hindu women went missing during the war.
This correspondent spoke to two other women in Ataikula village, who were brutalised by the occupation forces.
Kali Rani Paul, who has been recognised as a Birangana, said the Pakistanis also killed her husband Anil Chandra Paul. “I was pregnant. They hit me in the belly with a rifle butt. I had to give birth to a dead child.”
Sujola Rani Paul, still unrecognised, said she lives on working as a house help. “The days after the massacre have been tough. We passed many days without food, unable to cook at our homes.”
MARTYRS UNRECOGNISED TOO
Like the Biranganas, the 52 martyrs and eight survivors of Ataikula massacre remain unrecognised.
“I went to many places since the war for this recognition,” said Girendranath Paul, who survived the mass killing with bullet wounds in his face, right hand, and leg.
Goutam Paul, son of martyr Gobinda Charan Paul, also had long been fighting for the recognition of the victims.
Finally, the Prime Minister’s Office in March 2015 ordered recognising the martyrs. It then took five years, until October last year, for the Jatiya Muktijuddha Council to complete the scrutiny of the martyrs’ families, he said.
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