20 districts saw over 5000 genocides in 1971: Survey

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Bangla Tribune Report
Published : 18:25, Mar 22, 2019 | Updated : 19:46, Mar 22, 2019

A new survey has revealed that 5,121 incidents of mass killings were carried out by the Pakistani occupation forces in 20 districts alone in Bangladesh during 1971 liberation war.
Prof Muntasir Mamoon, who leads the state-sponsored project under a group called Centre for Genocide-Torture and Liberation War Studies, revealed the information at a seminar at the Bangla Academy on Friday (Mar 22).

Researchers also feared that the casualty figure of the Liberation War could exceed 3 million, once the survey was completed.
“The figure is likely to exceed 3 million if our ongoing nationwide study is completed using the global positioning system (GPS), pinpointing the 1971 killing fields,” said the historian professor.
He said in each of the case, five to 1,000 people were slaughtered by the Pakistani troops and their cohorts while in one particular case of Jashore’s Chuknagar killing, over 10,000 people were mowed down in hours.
Mamoon said in terms of casualty figure, the 1971 Genocide was the worst after the Second World War Holocaust when the then Nazi regime killed six million Jews in a systematic and bureaucratic manner in between 1941 and 1945.
Mamoon said the post 1975 regimes of General Ziaur Rahman, General Ershad and Begum Khaleda Zia along with the Jammat-e- Islami visibly tried to downplay the 1971 Genocide with an ill political motive.
“All of them virtually tried to erase the ‘Genocide’ from the history” in pursuance of their politics to appease Pakistan and their Bengali cohorts of 1971, he said.
Mamoon said BNP just tried to portray Ziaur Rahman as the 1971 hero and simultaneously made their best efforts to hide the misdeeds of Jamaat’s the then outfits like al-shams and al-Badar.
The center is using the GPS facilities for the first time in South Asia to gauge the genocide intensity while in the second phase of the study, it surveyed 10 districts.
He said their study found 404 killing fields, 502 mass-graves and 547 torture cells in the 20 districts.
Bodies of the Bengali intellectuals taken away on the 14th December 1971 by Al-Badr fanatical group, which had just been discovered and identified, including 7 professors of the Dacca University. Another 10 bodies were still awaiting identification most of them were garotted. Photo: Marilyn Silverstone/ Magnum PhotosTen out the 20 districts were surveyed last year.
This year, the committee found the data on the highest number of sites of genocide and mass killing in Jashore with 589 genocide, 39 killing fields, 33 mass graves and 36 torture centres.
According to the survey, the district-wise genocide incidents in other districts are as follows:
Gaibandha - 164
Jamalpur -268
Narail - 161
Panchagarh - 693
Moulvibazar - 375
Lalmonirhat - 601
Brahmanbaria - 649
Cox's Bazar - 267
Barisal - 306
Ten districts which were surveyed last year were— Nilphamari, Narayanganj, Bogra, Natore, Kurigram, Pabna, Rajshahi, Satkhira, Bhola and Khulna.
Last year, the survey report revealed that 1,752 incidents of mass killings were carried out by the occupying Pakistani forces in these 10 districts.
According to the survey, the district-wise genocide incidents in other districts are as follows:
Khulna - 1,227 genocide incidents
Nilphamari- 85
Bogra- 139
Natore- 126
Kurhigram- 84
Pabna- 126
Rajshahi- 262
Satkhira- 41
Narayanganj- 288
Bhola- 74
According to Mamoon, the count of three million people died in the 1971 Liberation War has excluded the number of deaths in refugee camps.
“If the deaths in refugee camps are to add, then will the number of martyrs be limited to three million?,” the researcher-historian questioned.
The Centre for Genocide, Torture and Liberation War Studies has published 10 books on the 'genocide-mass killing and mass grave' based on this year’s survey.

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