Turjoy Chowdhury

Genocide'71 - A Memory MaP

Supported by The National Geographic Society

g71memorymap.org

The Project was nominated for Tim Hetherington Trust Visionary Award 2020.

Though still unrecognized internationally as genocide, in 1971 around 3 million people were killed by the Pakistani military and their collaborators in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). 200,000 to 400,000 women were raped. It’s the price Bangladesh had to pay for its independence. The massacre and the subsequent war that ended with the birth of an independent Bangladesh, started with ‘Operation Search Light’ on 25th March, continued for 9 months. An estimated 7000 people died only on the first night. 10 million people fled and took refuge in India. Hindus, students, Awami League sympathizers, intellectuals and influential leaders were targeted and killed. Countless people were inhumanly tortured to extract information about freedom fighters. Hindu settlements were destroyed. The Pakistani Army and their supporters systematically abducted, killed and dumped bodies in different killing sites.

Gollamari was one of the largest killing fields in Khulna and in the country. It remained mostly deserted at the time of the war. The nearby radio station was premanently controlled by Pakistani military. Captured Bengalis were mostly detained and tortured in Khulna Circuit House, Prison and UFD Club, with the collaborators and Pakistani army bringing hundreds of blindfolded and tied people in trucks in the middle of the night to Gollamari, where they were killed. Two dedicated trucks brought victims to their death in Gollamari on a regular basis. At first the killings were conducted at night, but then later the atrocities were carried out during daytime as well. Residents of Gollamari could hear the dying screams of people at night but no one had the right to open their windows and see - if anyone tried to open their windows, they would be shot. The victims were shot at first, but later the Pakistani army opted to behead their victims because it saved bullets and ensured death. Bihari collaborators helped with the beheadings. Even though the country was freed from Pakistani occupation on 16th December, Khulna was freed on the 17th. Two trucks of skulls were recovered after the 17th – more skulls were seen scattered here and there. Abdus Sattar Shikdar was Gollamari memorial caretaker before he died and was interviewed by Gourango Nandi. This is his chilling description of what he saw at Gollamari – “After coming to Gollamari on 16th and 17th December, it was difficult to set foot in the place because of the rotting flesh, bones and skulls – which defies all imagination today. Where the Gollamari memorial now stands used to be a paddy field. The surrounding areas of the Gollamari river, paddy fields, radio station – the whole area was filled with motionless bodies of people. Many people rushed there to find their loved ones. They covered their faces and tried to find traces of their loved ones among the remains of the dead as the stench of death hung heav
The Khulna Railway Station was the only way to go to North Bengal for thousands of people from Khulna, Faridpur and Barisal. Pakistani soldiers lay waiting for passengers, robbed them of valuables, cut their stomachs open and dumped them into the river from the attached steamer jetty. On 5th April 1971, Bihari collaborators killed railway station guard Bari and 5 others. Workers of the railway station and the steamer jetty were killed as well and skeletons were later found at an abandoned storage behind the railway station. Women were raped at the storage house, which was used as a torture cell as well.
The Khulna Newsprint Mill was established by the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation in 1959 on 53 acres of land in Khalishpur and was the first newsprint mill in what is now Bangladesh. The mill served as a killing field for the Pakistani military junta. 28th March onwards, most of the workers and their families living in the mill colony left the area, but were urged to come back and continue working through radio broadcasts that assured workers that the mill was safe and secure. The radio broadcasts were part of a trap set by the Pakistanis to try to lure as many people to the mill as possible – soldiers lying in wait picked off the returning workers one by one and killed them, some of the bodies were dumped in an identified mass grave at the mill colony and in the nearby Bhairab river. Soldiers from the adjacent Titumir Naval Base were involved in the killing – the isolated mill later served as an extended base of operations for the Pakistanis. Eyewitness account by Abdul Malek Sardar.
Letter signed by Sheikh Mujib sent to Ataur Rahman, father of Munshibari victim Habibur Rahman, acknowledging the contributions of the victim towards the liberation of Bangladesh and his loss of life. The only document acknowledging the Munshibari killing, the letter, issued on 6th April 1972, also contains proof of financial compensation provided to the victim’s family, amounting to 2000 Taka.
Adjacent to the courthouse near Forrest Ghat was Khulna Circuit House, commonly referred to as “Helipad”. In 1971, this served as an interrogation cell for the Pakistani military – people were brought from all over the place and held at Khulna Circuit House to be tortured, raped and killed. In the name of interrogation, the Pakistanis dealt out inhumane torture, with a pre-determined verdict as justice – death. Victims sentenced to death would be carried out to Forrest Ghat, where they would be killed. The Pakistani soldiers used to tie up and hang people from the helipad as well. Abdus Salam Sardar, then employee of Rupali Bank, had this to say – “You just needed to look towards the helipad to see the signs of torture. One day I saw a child of no more than 12 or 13, hung upside-down from the helipad, being beaten. His body was covered with blood and he was either dead or unconscious. Countless people were tortured in similar fashion, with new torture techniques implemented frequently.”

“Genocide’71 – A Memory Map” is a creative research project, that revisits, investigates and interprets the atrocities that occurred in these killing fields, mass graves, and torture cells. This project creates a visual narrative by photographing these places, in their current state, drawing a conceptual link between the past and the present along with using different mapping techniques and forensic architectural analysis. Combining with portraits and testimonies of eyewitness and survivors, archival letters, documents, articles and objects directly or indirectly connected to the massacres, this project is an effort to retain the memories of the genocide 1971.

Screenshot of the interactive map that shows the exact points of the mass graves, killing fields, torture cells along with geo-tagging photographs, testimonies, text and other relevant information for a specific point.
Screenshot of the interactive map that shows the exact points of the mass graves, killing fields, torture cells along with geo-tagging photographs, testimonies, text and other relevant information for a specific point.
Static map of Khulna showing the zones of atrocity. The sizes of the circles correspond to the perceived impact of the fatalities.
Static map of Khulna showing the zones of atrocity. The sizes of the circles correspond to the perceived impact of the fatalities.
Forensic Architectural analysis (3D modeling and composite perspectives) of the first Camp of Razakars (War crime collaborators) in Khulna, which was also an interrogation center and torture cell.
Zone map detailing the incidents and atrocities around Khulna Circuit House.
Zone map detailing the incidents and atrocities around Khulna Circuit House.
Zone map detailing the Chuknagar Massacre.
Zone map detailing the Chuknagar Massacre.

More contents available on request.

Currently the project is accepting collaboration of volunteers from multidisciplinary background. 

© 2023 Turjoy Chowdhury  /  All rights reserved.