Nutan Chandra Singha was performing his prayers when the Pakistani Army led by Salauddin Quader Chowdhury burst into the Kundeshwari Aushadhalay complex in Gohira between 9am and 10am on April 13, 1971.
Salauddin told the Pakistan occupation force that his father, Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, wanted Nutan Chandra dead. The army men opened fire on the 70-year-old, causing him to fall to the ground.
As Nutan Chandra lay bleeding in his final moments, Salauddin shot him again – to make sure he was dead.
Witness Gouranga Singha said his father Nilambar Singha and uncle Nutan Chandra Singha lived together with their families in the Kundeshwari complex in 1971. Gouranga was a member of the joint family.
On that fateful day, he and Himangshu Baidya, Brojohari Karmakar and Gopal Das were trying to take Nutan Chandra to safety away from Kundeshwari complex. But he would not agree to go.
While they were discussing getting Nutan Chandra out, a military vehicle arrived at the complex. Salauddin, several Rajakars and several Pakistani soldiers got out of the vehicle.
Seeing the soldiers, Monaranjon Singha and Himangshu Baidya fled into the jungle on the south side of the house. Brojohari Karmakar and Gopal Das hid on the first floor.
Brojahori Karmokar and Gopal Das witnessed Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, local collaborators and Pakistani Army personnel enter the house and then leave after speaking with Nutan Chandra.
After a brief interval, Salauddin and his associates returned and pulled Nutan Chandra out of the temple. The Pakistani soldiers opened fire on Nutan Chandra at point blank. Minutes later Salauddin shot him as well.
Nutan Chandra’s bullet-riddled remains lay there, untouched for two or three days without being cremated. Everyone had fled in terror, there was nobody around to perform the last rites.
Shortly after Bangladesh’s independence, Satya Ranjan filed a criminal case against Salauddin on the charge of murdering his father Nutan Chandra Singha.
Mass killings
Around 1pm the same day, Salauddin and his accomplices led the Pakistan occupation force to Bonikpara in Sultanpur where they opened fire on unarmed Hindu civilians based on a pre-arranged plan. Nepal Chandra Dhar Monendra, Lal Dhar and Opendra Lal Dhar were killed in the slaughter. The houses of Bonikpara were set on fire.
Anil Baran, a victim as well as a witness, said Salauddin, some of his father’s followers and Pakistani army personnel entered Bonikpara chanting slogans. Arriving at their house, the military personnel dragged him and his father, Opendra Lal Dhar, from their room to the courtyard.
His uncles, Monendra Lal Dhar and Nepal Chandra Dhar, were also present in the courtyard.
The military men and their militia allies, lined them up in a row and opened fire.
Anil Baran fell unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he realised he had been hit in the hand and the side of his back. His father and two others lay dead next to him.
A doctor was able to remove the bullets, but the procedure left him an amputee.
His father and the two other victims were buried by Muslim neighbours in a mass grave in the courtyard of Tezendralal Biswas.
Again on April 13, between 4pm and 5pm, Salauddin and his accomplices led the Pakistani Army and attacked Unsattur para, an area with a large Hindu population in Raozan upazila.
The local Hindu populace was told they were to attend a peace meeting and brought to the bank of a pond behind the house of Khitish Mohajan. Once assembled, the soldiers opened fire on them.
The massacre left Chandra Kumar Paul, 49 others who have been identified and another 20 unidentified people dead.
Januti Bala Paul sustained injuries to her abdomen and her brother Hemonto had his left hand severed by a bullet. He later succumbed to his injuries.
Three or four days later, villagers buried 93 bodies on the western bank of the pond. Hindus from the area fled and became refugees in India.
Several days later at around 11am on April 17, the founder of the Chittagong Awami League, Sheikh Mozaffor Ahmed, and his family were intercepted as they travelled from Raozan to Chittagong city.
At a three-way intersection in Khagrachari, Mozaffor’s private car was pointed out to Pakistan army personnel by Salauddin. The military men stopped the car, forced Mozaffor and his son Alamgir from the vehicle and took them to a nearby army camp. They were subsequently killed by their captors.