Sheikh Mujib

This is just a part of bloody Arabian night story, which led us a nine-month long war of liberation ensued, culminating in the emergence of an independent Bangladesh on 16 December 1971. The Liberation War was not , however, fought in the battlefield alone. Thousands of unarmed people including women and children provided support to the Freedom Fighters - in running errands, hiding or transporting arms and ammunition, providing shelter and food, nursing the sick and the wounded and in myriad other ways.

Bangladesh, Bangladesh
Bangladesh, Bangladesh
When the sun sinks in the west
Die a million people of the Bangladesh... (Joan Baez)

It was a dreadful midnight of 25th March, 1971. Most of the students of Iqbal Hall (one of the allocated residence for the students of Dhaka University) were in sound sleep at that night. Some were taking preparation to go to bed after their laborious daily routine work. All of a sudden, led by American supplied M-24 World War II tanks, "the most civilized" Pakistan Army cracked down on those unarmed sleeping Bengali students of Dhaka University area. It's just a beginning of the story. A melancholic prologue - a bloody preamble of the of the most cruel genocide in the world's history....

"..And the students at the university
Asleep at night quite peacefully
The soldiers came and shot them in their beds
And terror took the dorm awakening shrieks of dread
And silent frozen forms and pillows drenched in red..." (~Joan Baez)

Pakistani armed troops took over the British Council Library and used it as fire base from which to shell at the Iqbal Hall and its nearby dormitory areas. Since Iqbal Hall was then known as the headquarters of the Free Bengal Students Action Committee, a major portion of the Pakistani Army fury was directed at Iqbal Hall. Just after midnight Iqbal Hall came under a barrage of heavy mortar and machine-gun attack from near the pond in front and the police barracks behind it. In plain words, Pak soldiers created a havoc at that night in that area - they crucified, slaughtered the innocent students like animals, killed indiscriminately to execute the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, an ethnic culture--the entire "Bangalee Nation".

Jatiyo Smriti Shoudho

Did you read about the army officer's plea
For donor's blood? It was given willingly
By boys who took the needles in their veins
And from their bodies every drop of blood was drained
No time to comprehend and there was little pain ...(Joan Baez)

On that eventful horrible night, instantly at least 200 students were killed in Iqbal Hall. "What transpired around Iqbal Hall, I saw with my own eyes. Raging infernos everywhere; the slum was burning, the cars parked around the residences were burning. The heaped bodies of the dead from the slum were also set on fire near the Nilkhet rail gate petrol pump. The sound of shells bursting and guns firing, the smoke and fire, the smell of gun-powder and the stench of the burning corpses all transformed the area into a fiery hell. Every so often our building was being peppered with bullets. In the midst of this, we, our families, the students and bearers from the Halls, the slum-dwellers, had given up all hope for life, and were waiting for the hour of death.", said Professor Rafiqul Islam of Dhaka University, who was the unfortunate witness of the cruel massacre of that night.

Once again we stand aside
And watch the families crucified
See a teenage mother's vacant eyes
As she watches her feeble baby try
To fight the monsoon rains ... (Joan Baez)

Even after two days, visitors still found scattered bodies smoldering in burnt-out rooms, others were scattered outside, more floated in a nearby lake, an art student lay sprawled across his easel. Though the civilized military tried to remove many of the bodies to 'cover fish with vegetables' ("Shaak diye mach dhaakaar engreji ta ki hobey?") from the civilized world , but many bodies still there could never have accounted for all the blood in the corridors of Iqbal Hall. Kasem bhai quotes in his article "Reminiscing this bloody day after three decades"-

"... The scene I saw in Iqbal Hall was beyond any description. The whole area was like a battlefield. I knew that DUCSU VP Tofail Ahmed used to live there. There were holes on the walls created by mortar shells. Those holes were visible from afar. When I arrived at the playground of the hall, I saw about 30 dead bodies all lined up for display to the public. Many of the dead bodies were beyond any recognition due to innumerable bullet holes on their faces. That was a gruesome sight. Many people started crying. My friend Jafar used to live in Iqbal hall. I did not see his dead body. Later, I learnt that his dead body was found in his bed. Needless to say, the displayed corpses were merely a small fraction of the students when Pak army had murdered in Iqbal Hall on that dreadful night."

Joan Baez Singer of "The Song of Bangladesh" Listen | Lyrics

Courtesy:
Avijit Roy
BanglaMusic.com