Fifty-three years after Bangladesh’s independence, countless stories remain untold. This series brings you 12 accounts of resistance, defiance, valour, and sacrifice for the motherland. Part 1 tells the story of Aburkhil, the small village that sheltered refugees and freedom fighters during the Liberation War.

Aburkhil: A sanctuary for freedom fighters

AHMAD ISTIAK

Along the quiet banks of the Halda in Raozan upazila of Chattogram lies Aburkhil, home to the country’s largest Buddhist community and, in 1971, an undeclared liberated zone. In those months of fire and flight, the village became both haven and stronghold, gathering fleeing families, exhausted soldiers, and an unlikely frontline of care and defiance beneath its canopy of trees.

Refugees began pouring into Aburkhil as the Pakistan army overran Chattogram in early April. When troops pushed into Raozan on April 13 through Madunaghat, leaving behind 13 killing spots and ravaging Keranihat Bazar along with nearby Hindu-majority villages, hundreds of terrified Hindus crossed the Halda, clinging to the village as their last shelter. Many escaping Chattogram city followed, believing Aburkhil would hold.

“We, hundreds of Hindu refugees, lived inside their homes,” recalled 75-year-old Sharbindu Kanti Banik of Paschim Gujra, a nearby village. “Many later left for India. We stayed. What the people of Aburkhil did for us is unforgettable.”

The village’s contribution to the Bangladesh Liberation War This

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