When the Pakistan Army and its allies barged into houses and gunned down villagers

It was the morning of 25th November, 1971 and the pleasant rays of the sun fell on two villages. A gentle breeze blew across. Suddenly the peace was disturbed and people started running here and there.

Pakistani army appeared out of nowhere and their men entered house to house. They fired indiscriminately at the villagers, mostly men. The orgy of violence in Ghatarchar and Bhawal continued for hours and hundreds of people were killed.

Mass killings started early in the morning in Ghatchar. When the news reached the nearby Bhawal village, people started running here and there to save their lives. There was panic everywhere.

Only a few Bhawal residents were tricked by the Razakars (local collaborators of the Pakistan Army) into believing that they had nothing to worry about and should remain in the village. Most of the villagers left their homes, however, many returned due to assurances given by the Razakars. As soon as they returned to their homes, army personnel pounced on the innocent villagers and fired bullets at them.

51 years after the massacre, Amar Chan is unable to hold back tears as he recalls the fateful morning when seven members of his family were executed by the occupation forces. “Around 8 or 8.30 am, we saw a handful of masked soldiers and some others (collaborators) coming from the road. To save our lives, we started running on the banks of the canal. On the way we saw that the army had cordoned off the areas around our school. The Razakars sent us back saying that they would do us no harm. But, as soon as we came back to our homes, they started firing. I picked up my older son and ran with him to the canal side, while my wife ran north with our younger son. My father, sister, her husband, younger brother, nephew and niece could not survive the bullet injuries.

According to local freedom fighters, witnesses to the massacre and relatives of the martyrs, local villagers had a fierce dispute with local Razakar commander Faiz Hussain over the possession of the Ghatchar playground during the liberation war. Razakar Faiz Hussain threatened that he would settle scores with the villagers as he could not take possession of the land even with forged documents. He then sent a 7-point notice to the Dhaka Cantonment informing about the presence of several freedom fighters in Ghatarchar village. At the beginning of the Liberation War, Ghatchar residents and East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) members Ghulam Mustafa, Rehman Matbar and many villagers joined the fight.

Rahman came home to Matabar in the last week of November and called the local youths to join the liberation struggle. He held a meeting with the local youth near the local Tanpara Mosque on the night of 24 November, in which the participants were listed as freedom fighters and some important issues were decided. Many youths immediately signed up to join the war. After learning about the meeting of freedom fighters from reliable sources, Faiz Hussain, Razakar Mokhtar Miya and Razakar Zainal Doctor of Looter Char (local village) secretly informed the Pakistani Army about the presence of freedom fighters.

At 1.30 am on 25 November, around 150 Pakistani soldiers entered the Washpur Ghat through the Buriganga River in several gunboats. Then walking along the western bank of the river, they reached the bank of Ghatchar. After that, with the help of Razakar Senapati Faiz Hussain and Burqa-clad Razakar Mokhtar Miya, the attacking forces surrounded the entire Ghatarchar village in the night itself.

Around 6.30 am, Pakistani soldiers with the help of Razakar Commander Faiz Hussain entered the houses and opened fire targeting the male members. At that time the men of different houses started running to hide. But since the entire village was surrounded earlier, the Ghatarchar villagers were ambushed.

Pakistani soldiers dragged men from houses in Ghatarchar including the houses of Tan Para, Paschim Para, Purba Para and Bhawal Khan and brought them out and made them stand in Khalpar (canal bank) and Ghatarchar area and carried out large scale massacre. , About 57 villagers were martyred instantly.

Shamser Ali, the narrator, lost two of his brothers, Araj Ali and Darbesh Ali, in the Ghatchar massacre, but luckily survived.

He said, ‘Pakistani army entered our house at around 8 am. We were living at home. They dragged my elder brother out of the house and beat him up in front of the gate. My other brother was dragged to the field, made to stand in a line and shot. When my elder brother died, I ran for my life and hid in the woods near the house. I was saved because they couldn’t see me.”

Shamser Ali said, “In a mass grave at Ghatarchar, we buried 34 people together. There were only corpses and corpses all around.

The Ghatarchar massacre ended at 8 am. Then, around 8.30 am, the Pakistani invading force with the help of Razakars reached on foot on the road to Bhawal village next to Ghatchar. First, a large contingent of Pakistani troops entered through Bhawal School and surrounded the northern and western sides of the village. Then the rest of the invading force entered the village from the south. Seeing the Pakistani soldiers, the villagers started running here and there to save their lives. The Razakars assured the villagers that they would not be harmed and asked them to stay at home.

Most of the villagers fled, but the rest believed the Razakars and went back home. As soon as the villagers reached their homes, the attacking jawans started firing. Around 29 villagers were brutally murdered.

Umar Chan lost seven members of his family in the Bhawal massacre. Luckily he survived that day, but even today the brutality of the invaders and the Razakars shocks him.

Umar Chan’s father, elder sister, elder sister’s husband, younger brother, two nephews and a niece were martyred in Bhawal village massacre. His sister Bishka Rani was hit by seven bullets but survived.

Bharti Rani, a resident of Bora Bhawal Rishipara, lost her husband Ramcharan and cousin Yudhu Das in this massacre.

He said, ‘We were all running after seeing the army in the morning. After this everyone gathered in the canal. Shooting started. My husband has two bullets in both his legs. He pretended to be dead so that the army or the Razakars would not suspect that he was alive. Some of us managed to escape. When the army left, the family informed that your husband and your cousin had been killed.

The Pakistani invading forces and their allies did not stop even after killing people in Ghatchar and Bhawal. With the help of Razakars, they then set fire to the nearby villages – Kathaltali and Guita – and burnt down most of the houses.