Fifty-three years after independence, many stories of the Liberation War remain untold. The Daily Star, in the 8th instalment of this 12-part series, turns to Saidpur, where Pakistani forces, aided by local collaborators, systematically abducted, tortured, and killed the town’s leading intellectuals in March-June 1971 -- months before the December 14 massacre.

AHMAD ISTIAK

Around 10:00pm on March 25, 1971, Dr Zikrul Haque had just sat down to eat when one of his sons suddenly announced that the military had surrounded their house in Nilphamari’s Saidpur. While panic spread through the family, Zikrul remained calm, as though prepared for what was to come.

“When he was told he had to go with them, he quietly left. That was the last time I saw him,” his son Mujibul Haque recalled.

“As they were putting my father into the jeep, I saw Bihari leader Yusuf Butt sitting in the back. There was no doubt left as to who had brought the Pakistanis.”

That night, Pakistani soldiers, aided by non-Bangalee Biharis, abducted Dr Zikrul, a member of the Provincial Assembly and convener of the All-Party Resistance Committee.

He was not the only one.

The same night, Saidpur Thana Awami League vice-president Dr Badiuzzaman, philanthropist businessman Tulsiram Agarwala, and his son Rameshwar Lal Employment

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