"In 1971 I joined Rangpur Medical College as a 'store assistant' after passing my degree examination. After the war started there was a commotion in the shops of non-Bengalis at the crossing of the Rangpur Shipping Company. After this Rangpur slowly got heated. I do not remember the month, but it seems the date was the second. Then I came over to my own house in Syedpur for safety. My parents had already died. Coming home, I told my brother and sister-in-law, their children and uncle and aunt that it would not be wise under any circumstances to stay here. This was because Syedpur was a Bihari-populated town and the principal depot of the Pak army. I said that they should move to some other town or to the village. But they procrastinated and did not go anywhere out of attachment to their home and thinking of their valuables and belongings.
"The Bengali EPR and members of the army at Syedpur revolted against the Pak army. I do not remember the exact date, but that day there was a lot of commotion. Thereafter Bengali army officers and jawans started moving out from there in small batches of 5 or 6.
"In effect from that very night, we could not move out of the town anymore. Punjabi soldiers had completely surrounded our town. They placed guards in all houses, whether of Hindus or of Muslims. During that time we were thus under house arrest. There were secret killings also. Many were seized in the dark of the night and killed, including Tulshiram Agarwala, Rameshchandra Agarwala, and Dr Zikrul.
"At that time we had only one thought in our heads - how to get out of the town. The Pakistani soldiers had set up a check-post in the present Police thana. There was very strict verification at this checkpost as to whether any Bengali was going out. Any Bengali found in the bus used to be taken inside the Police thana and killed then and there. We have no correct data on how many Bengalis were killed in the Police thana. But countless Bengalis were killed here.
"In the meantime one day it was heard that an airport would be built at Syedpur to set up a base for the Pakistan Air Force. One day we were all seized and taken to work there. I was twenty-one or twenty-two then. Like me, almost every youth of this area was seized and taken there. They set up camp in one of two places in addition to Syedpur High School and Darul Ulum Madrasah and took us to those camps. We were told that we were being taken to camps so that Biharis could not commit atrocities against us. But that was a bluff. Those of us who were under the surveillance of the Pakistan army in this camp had to report every morning at six o'clock at Syedpur airport. We were to work there as labourers for a full three months. There we carried bricks, stones, and we even did soling by laying bricks. They made us work ceaselessly from six in the morning until six in the evening but did not let us drink a single glass of water. Working like this we felt that it was better to die rather than suffer this. During work, we were subjected to beatings and mental torture. One day they gave such a beating with an electric whip to a friend of mine by the name of Peara that he developed an infection in his sore spot. Whenever they saw any slackness in anyone's work they used to beat mercilessly with the butts of guns, kick with boots and the whip. Men do not even beat cows and goats the way they used to beat us. After working for three months when the airport was being carpeted we were told, "You may now go home." Two months after we returned home Major Gul and Havildar Fateh Khan called us again through some persons, including Jamaat-e-Islam leaders Mowlana Abdul Kayum and Matin Hashmi. These two Pakistan army officers were very ferocious in character. Other officers of 29 cavalry like Major Tahsin Mirza or Capt Iqbal Shah who were no less devilish than Major Gul. The local razakars and Biharis used to assist these ferocious hyenas in rapes, looting and killing in the area. There were a few other army officers whose names I do not remember right at this moment. If anyone reported to them that so-and-so was an agent of India or of the Awami League then that person used to be killed right away without verification of any data.
On June 13, we were called with word that the Major would hold a meeting with us, in particular with the Hindus, and if anyone wanted to go to India he would be sent to India without a problem. 'You are ordinary people-you have nothing to fear'-with such words false hopes were also given. Thereafter they took us away. 150 persons up to the age of 40, leaving out old men, children and women, were taken to the cantonment around four in the afternoon. Local Biharis and friends of Pakistanis were guarding us. There we were kept huddled in three rooms six feet by six feet in the Ayub Khan Housing Project. Thereafter when they left us locked in we realized that the situation was different - they would kill us. At that time many were begging for their lives falling at the feet of the Pakistani soldiers. Then the soldiers abused them, swearing by their mothers and fathers, and said kicking them with heavy boots, 'The Major will tell you at night why you have been brought here.' Thereafter the soldiers kept guarding us by aiming their guns at us. At night all were called one by one. They took information from everyone about their money, gold and jewellery. They called Dinu Babu and asked (in Urdu) 'Where is your chequebook? Do you have any bank account? Is it in Habib Bank? Where have you kept it? Where are the keys of the almirah?' etc. etc.
"In the meantime, Pak soldiers and their friends searched from door to door and looted money, gold and jewellery. They collected cheque books from the houses. They had the checks signed by the prisoners in the cantonment. Looting in this way went on for three-four days keeping the menfolk imprisoned.
"Just at the beginning of the seventh day - we were then very tired, lying with our heads on bricks, surviving somehow with the food that was coming once a day from home - on 13 June 1971 at about 5 in the morning, as it was drizzling, they told us suddenly, 'Come, let's take you to India." We then realized that this journey was to be our last journey. Some musclemen had been kept in the rail station from before. Everything was pre-planned. All of us were brought to this station. Four bogeys connected with an engine were awaiting us. The men were put in the first two bogies. And a representative from each family was sent to bring the women and children of each family. Each woman had brought money and gold jewellery on their bodies as far as possible. They had thought that since they had to go to India it was better to take money with them.
"The women and children were put on the two rear bogies. There was no way to see from one bogie what was happening in another. The windows of the train were shut. Pak raiders and their friends were guarding all sides so that none could escape. Meanwhile, the train started moving slowly. But after running about two km the train stopped at a culvert near the railway workshop. We could not understand why the train stopped there. The shutters of the other windows of the bogies of the train were already closed. The musclemen who had got on board beforehand were not allowing anyone to open the shutters or to see anything outside through the windows. When one or two persons tried to open the shutters they swore and said (in Urdu), 'Bastards, sit quietly, do as we say, else we'll blow you up.’
"Then we realized that what was to happen would happen right here. Opening a shutter I saw that white cloth was put on the head of Balchand Agarwala father of Binodkumar Agarwala and he was standing on the side of the culvert. I saw clearly that the local dacoit Idris cut off his head with one stroke with an erect sword and kicked and threw him into the culvert. Quayum Munshi (member of the Peace Committee), Nisar Ahmed Behari (was in the jute business) Salaru Gunda & Mohiuddin Goonda were also there. We came to know of their names after independence. At that time I had remembered their faces. Later they all got released under the general amnesty of Bangabandhu.
"When Balachand was killed with his head severed with the two-edged sword there was a total commotion in our bogie. We were then thinking of setting fire to the train. Before that, we told one of them (in Urdu), "Why are you killing us like this - why are you killing with swords - kill us by gunshot." They replied, "Bastard, the Pakistan government's bullets are not so cheap - if the bullets are spent on you then how can they be spent on the Indian army and "muktis"? You have to die not by bullets, but like this."
"Then we broke the shutters of a window by force. After we broke the shutters three of us saw that they were cutting men down one after another. Those who were escaping from the other side were shot dead. I knew many of those who got gunned down. Tilak Peara, when he was shot at, jumped up in the air like a koi fish and fell down.
"When I was seeing near ones dying like this I was wondering where I would go. On the train were thirteen members of my family, including my elder brother and his wife - where would I go leaving them behind? Whom shall I leave behind? Then my elder brother Santosh Kumar Das (36) said, "None of them will be able to survive - you try. If you can survive then at least one soul will live. "I kept my brother's word. My cousin and I survived. My brother, his wife, their 10/12-year-old daughter, 5/6-year-old younger daughter and an infant of two or three months and the mother-in-law of my elder brother were killed that day. The mother-in-law had come here from Tangail to help in the delivery of her daughter - death dragged her also from this train.
"When I jumped through the window of the train I was wearing a lungi and underpants. It was then raining in torrents from a cloudy sky. Around me were jute fields; bamboo groves and a monsoon atmosphere on all sides. The jute plants had by then grown tall. I jumped through the window about 15/20 feet below. It was not at all easy to jump. But I jumped that day at the call of life. It was a journey into the unknown - I did not know if I would die or survive. I could not keep my balance after jumping. Was at a loss where I would go, what would I do. The lungi I was wearing got loose and fell. I was wearing only the underpants. On two sides were light machine guns, AK forty-seven rifles and grenades. They were sitting aiming these. Firing started from two sides. I was sitting on mud. I thought that I was shot. Later I realized that the bullets had missed me. With the shower of bullets, it started raining. Quite a number of other men jumped from the train after me. I thought that I would have to cross 8/10 positions to get away. I started running. Fire, crossfire went on. One bullet brushed my hair. By the grace of God rain started pouring in the evening like smoke so that their shots were getting misdirected. I found a safe spot and took shelter in a high bamboo grove beside the jute field."
"Narrating a heart-rending incident of that day Tapan Kumar Das cried out like a child. The incident was that one mother had let go of her three or four-year-old child in the hope of saving him. The child was sobbing near the bamboo grove and standing there. Tapan Kumar is today suffering from remorse. Why had he not picked up the child that day? For this, even to this day, he remains shattered by pangs of conscience. He could have saved that child if he had wanted to.
After this, he said, "A little ahead of that bamboo grove was the WAPDA office- the razakars were on guard there. They were calling us, but we crossed the canal and ran and landed up in another village. The four of us took shelter with Bengalis there. While we were running, our feet had been injured and bruised by bamboo chips, thorns, etc."
He further said that in all 413 persons were killed that day. After independence twenty-eight bags of skulls, bones of hands, ribs, ankles etc. of these 413 women, men and children of the Hindu community who had become shaheeds at Golahat were collected and given a funeral through religious rites.
After Tapan Kumar returned home he learnt from some local people that slamming their heads on rail lines had killed children the way washermen slam clothes. Even many days after independence women's clothing, clips, chignons, braids, etc., were lying around.
Dr MA Hasan is chairperson of the War Crimes Facts Finding Committee, Bangladesh