The Untold Stories of the Independence War in Bangladesh
Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan 50 years ago after a war that involved terrible atrocities against the civilian population. Selective nationalist mythologies still obscure the human stories of victims and perpetrators, and the lasting scars of the conflict.
Three women who were raped by Pakistani troops during the Independence War in Bangladesh, attend a ceremony in Dhaka, 2002. (Jewel Samad / AFP via Getty Images)
On March 23, 1971, ethnic violence broke out across East Pakistan among the Bengalis and the Urdu-speaking population known as Biharis. The latter were refugees of India’s Partition in 1947, and Pakistan was the dream they were willing to kill and die for. The Bengalis, on the other hand, sought liberation from Pakistan. The railway town of Saidpur populated by Bengalis and Biharis became a hot spot of ethnic violence.
Nayatullah Ara, an elderly Bengali woman, recalled her loss:
My two children disappeared in an instant when we were trying to reach a shelter. I never found them. I still have their toys and clothes, but not my daughter and son. It is an unquenched fire in my heart.
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