July 25 is Shohagpur Massacre Day.
On this day in 1971, the Pakistani occupation army committed dreadful atrocities in Shohagpur village under Nalitabari upazila in Sherpur, on the pretence that freedom fighters, in the guise of farmers, were hiding in the village. A total of 187 innocent men and children were murdered that day.
With not a single man surviving the massacre, the village was renamed as “The Village of Widows” after independence.
However, 34 widows still remain alive to narrate the harrowing tale of that fateful day, and to see justice finds the razakars and war criminals, who were the root cause of the evils they experienced.
They also want to be self-reliant.
Shohagpur is located in Kakorkandi union, some 35km off the district town.
Each year, July 25 is a stark reminder to the villagers of the massacre. Around 7am on that bloody day, inconceivable cruelty descended upon them. The people of Shohagpur used to live a happy and tranquil life, not expecting, even for a minute, that such a fate was to befall them.
There were no freedom fighters in Shohagpur, but many took shelter at the neighbouring Baruajani village.
Like previous days, the villagers were busy sowing Aman seeds in the field while the Pakistani soldiers, with assistance from the local razakars, laid seige upon the village.
Before they could understand the situation, the army began shooting at them. In the face of the unrelenting barrage of bullets, some villagers tried to take shelter in their homes. But the invading army dragged them out.
They were tortured, and then shot point-blank in front of their loved ones. Not a single man was spared.
Once the Pakistani army left the village, the widows then buried their men. It was not a proper burial – the women put the bodies into the holes they had dug after shrouding their loved ones with their saris and banana leaves.
Even after independence, their lives were full of struggle, a continuous fight to survive.
In 1996, the then agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury first assisted the widows drawing from her own funds. Under the aegis of Brac, each widow was then given two goats, saris and rice, and provided a monthly stipend of Tk1,200.
Later, when the four-party coalition government assumed power in 2001, the allowance was stopped for undisclosed reasons. During the last caretaker government regime, joint forces and the district administration started three projects – afforestation, mushroom cultivation and a power-tiller service in Shohagpur. The projects, however, lost momentum due to lack of proper supervision.
At present, the machinery and other agricultural equipment from the projects are left under the open sky, since the project office has already been destroyed.
Finally on December 4, 2011, the Bangladesh Bank governor, with the help of local MP and Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, gave Tk1,000 to each widow as an allowance, and Tk1,000 to each of the families.
However, the widows say they lived better lives during the project period, and urged the government to take measures to revive those initiatives.
