Munshiganj liberated on Dec 11

Munshiganj was liberated from the clutches of Pakistani occupation forces on December 11, 1971. Freedom loving people of the district started taking fresh air most happily in a free country after months of fighting.

The district administration and different socio- cultural, political and professional organizations including district Muktijoddha Sangsad chalked out various programmes to mark the day.

The saga of the heroic freedom struggle against the subjugation of the Pakistani occupation forces in the district culminated in victory, and Munshiganj was liberated from the Pakistani marauders on this day.

At first, the Pakistani occupation forces entered the district town on May 1 through Abdullahpur Launchghat and Dhaleswari River and started their heinous atrocities on the people.

Earlier, on March 29, the then principal of Harganga College Abdul Mannan hoisted the national flag at the college campus. On the same day the freedom fighter looted Munshiganj arms warehouse and took preparation to fight against the Pakistani occupation armies.

The Pakistani occupation forces mounted a dastardly raid and overran the Munshigonj town on May 9, 1971. They set up a military camp at the Haraganga College hostel. Before capturing the town, the gun-boats of Pakistan Army invaded Gosair Char areas in Gazaria thana under cover of darkness of the night and perpetrated a horrible genocide in the sleepy hamlet.

The occupation soldiers dragged the unarmed, innocent people, mostly fishermen, in ten villages of the river-bank of Meghna and its branch river Fuldi. The baffled victims were herded into a long row and then shot-dead by brush-fire. Around 360 innocent villagers were dropped dead in an instant.

The Pak army attacked the house of freedom fighter Abdul Khalek and killed seven members of his family with the help of local Razakars Falu, Khoka Chowdhury, Sam Chowdhury and Gafur Chowdhury of Gazaria village.

On May 14, the occupation army most brutally killed 18 people including
intellectuals, of the town at Chowdhury Bari in Kewar. During their
occupation, the Pakistani soldiers and their local collaborators let loose a reign of pillage, killing, arson and raping of women.

The Pakistani occupation army got signals of resistance by the armed freedom fighters. In September they were routed by the freedom fighters at Shikrampur Hat in Baroikhali. About 100 Pak soldiers were killed in that battle.

Another fierce battle took place face to face at Goalimandra, where 57 Pak armies and Razakars were killed by the freedom fighters in the fight.

In December, the Pak army encountered a determined resistance by the brave freedom fighters at Ratanpur near Munshiganj town. In the face of stiff resistance, the Pak soldiers had to flee the place, leaving behind three bodies of their colleagues in uniform.

At one stage of the Liberation War, the Munshiganj town was encircled by armed freedom fighters. The Munshiganj thana was raided and burned down by the freedom fighters.

On December 9, a fierce war occurred face to face at Baushia village on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway where Muktijodhha Commander AKM Nazrul Islam died. After that the freedom fighters killed seven Pak armies in the fight.

The freedom fighters had already established their sway over rural areas. Finding themselves in such a precarious situation, the morale of the Pakistani occupation forces started sagging and they fled the Munshiganj town under cover of darkness in the small hours of December 11, 1971.

Soon afterward, the freedom fighters marched into the town in a triumphal procession shooting into the air from their fire arms in celebration of the victory of their liberation struggle.

The day is now remembered here by the people at large. The people of Munshiganj now console themselves with the thought that the freedom fighters shed their blood for a noble cause.

BSS

You may read…

Liberated

Killing Field of 1971

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