It was on a Saturday in the last week of April in 1971 when Monowara Islam Manu last saw his brother, Freedom Fighter Mahbub.
He was being dragged away by Biharis from a road near the place now known as Jalladkhana (place of execution) in Mirpur.
Mahbub had come to the house in Mirpur to meet his mother.
Around 10 to 12 Biharis surrounded the house at around 3pm and before taking him away. When his mother tried to intervene, the Biharis hacked her to death in front of the family members. The Biharis threw his one-and-a-half-year-old younger brother in the air and held the knife down and the child fell on the sharp weapon.
The child died right there.
Shaheed Mohammad Mahbub lived in Mirpur area in 1971. He participated in the war of liberation under Sector 9.
Monwara Islam was 7 or 8 years old during the war. She was frightened with the approach of the men at the house and escaped through the main door. She dived into the pond next to a mosque known as Haji mosque. She stayed in the pond all night. The Biharis killed innocent people in the area overnight and dumped their bodies in the pond.
She recalled her memory and said she wanted to survive. Therefore, she stayed in the pond all night. Early in the morning she saw her elder sister walking by the side of the pond with her other sisters. She shouted: "Bubu, I am here, I am alive."
Her sister jumped into the pond and hugged her and with tears in her eyes.
The men had not only captured her brother, but also looted valuables from the house.
On the same day, they moved to their village home in Keraniganj. Later they were informed that the Biharis had brought their brother to Mirpur Jalladkhana, and killed him along with many others. The bodies were dumped in a well.
On that horrific night, their father Mohhammad Sekandar Ali had gone to the mosque to offer Esha prayers but never returned.
In Keraniganj, Sekandar’s son-in-law Sheikh Suruj Ali left home on March 25. He too did not return home.
Mohammad Farid Uz Zaman, son of martyr Akrob Ali recalled his memory.
He saw his father killed in front of his eyes.
Currently, Mohammad Farid Uz Zaman lives in Mirpur-11 near Jalladkhana.
Farid Uz Zaman told this correspondent that he was 6 years old during the Liberation War. His father was a farmer. Upon hearing the news of the independence of the country, his father came to Mohakhali in the capital where he had kept the family at a safe place.
However, the Biharis did not take the defeat easily. They unleashed another massacre in Mirpur.
“On January 31, 1972, my father took us to a three-story house next to Mirpur-13 market. Some other people had also taken refuge there. Later, about 50 Biharis surrounded the house,” Farid Uz Zaman said.
"They came to the second floor and killed nine members of a family. They knocked on the door of the apartment where we were hiding. My mother opened the door. The Biharis wanted to know whether there were any men in the apartment. When my mother told them that there were no men in the apartment, one of them saw my father. Then they opened fire aiming at my father. But the bullet hit my mother's left hand," Farid continued.
“After that, the Biharis pushed my mother away from the doorstep and kept firing at my father until he was dead,” he said.
Farid said that he had grabbed the leg of one of the Biharis so that they would let his father go.
That day two of his uncles were also killed.
Abdul Hakim was killed by Biharis in Senpara area of Mirpur.
"My father was brutally shot dead by Biharis," said Abdul Hamid, son of Hakim.
“My father's body was not found,” he said.
The collaborators killed innumerable people during the period.
Bodies were also thrown into an underground water tank in Mirpur.
After three decades, an excavation led to the exhumation of a mass grave in the spot.
70 human skulls and 5,392 pieces of bone were recovered from the spot.
International recognition is needed
Bangladesh observes Genocide Day on March 25 commemorating the brutalities and cowardly attacks carried out by the Pakistani occupation forces on the unarmed Bangalees on the night of March 25, 1971. The families of the martyrs demand international recognition of the day.