The nation is celebrating the 43rd anniversary of its independence, but still there are many historical places, which bear the testimony of the brutality of Pakistani forces and their collaborators during the Liberation War, have remained been neglected for long and Wapda killing ground is one of them.
The Pakistani forces and their collaborators – the al-Badr, al-Shams and razakars – have killed many unarmed Bangladeshis and dumped their bodies at the ground.
As the memorial premise is not preserved properly, the place has now become a place for anti-social activities.
Barisal City Corporation Mayor Shawkat Hossain Hiron unveiled the curtain of a proposed project-board to preserve the spot on June 14, 2012, but it was not implemented for unknown reason.
After visiting the spot yesterday the correspondent found that even a signboard of the projects had also broken for lack of take care
Enayet Hossain Chowdhury, a veteran freedom fighter, said Pakistani army after an air raid on 17 April, had occupied the then Barisal district town on 25 April, 1971 and opened its regional headquarters and cantonment at complex of the Water and Power Development Authority on the bank of Kirtankhola River.
Till December 8, 1971, when ‘Mukti Bahini’ (freedom fighters) took control of Barisal town, Wapda campus was used as mass killing and torture ground of Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators.
However, the killing ground, torture cell and many other places reminiscent of the glorious independence war in the Barisal city has remained been in a neglected and ruined condition even after four decades of the victory, he added.
Sushanta Ghose, who worked on the mass killing ground of the region under a project of Muktijoddha Jadughar, said Barisal Sangskritik Sangathan Samanya Parishad in 2009 had taken an initiative with the help of Liberation War Museum and Barisal City Corporation to construct a memorial complex at the Wapda mass killing and torture ground and in the adjacent areas.
Syed Dulal, the president of the organisation, said the city corporation in coordination with Sangskritik Sangathan Samanya Parishad and Muktijuddha Jadughar planned to preserve the historical place at a cost of about Tk 50 lakhs.
Preservation of mass killing grounds and torture cells will not only help the trial of war criminals, but also reconstruct the objective history of Liberation War, said MG Kabir Vulu, a freedom fighter, who was tortured in cell during the war.
Nikhil Chandra Das, chief executive officer of the city corporation, said Tarik Ali, a trustee of the museum, had handed over a design of the complex to the city corporation authorities on May 2011 for preparing a project. Nandita Das, chief planning officer of BCC said the city corporation could not implement the project work for fund crunch.
The BCC preparing a plan for the Muktijoddha and Baddhya Bhumi Smriti Complex project and would place it before the local government ministry soon, she added.