Gallamari Mass Grave: Still bearing marks of butchery
Anyone in Khulna who either witnessed the Liberation War of 1971 or is aware of the regions's war-history will shudder at the name of Gallamari mass grave.
Located in Batiaghata upazila, the Gallamari area became a killing field, which saw around 15,000 people butchered by the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators – Razakars, Al-Badr, and Al-Shams men.
Today, 53 years since the independence, the place still bears the marks of butchery.
The once bushy surroundings near the single-storey Khulna radio station building and Gallamari Canal, located approximately three kilometers from Khulna city, became a center of genocide and torture orchestrated by Pakistan.
Sk Quamaruzzaman Tuku, 81, commander of Mujib Bahini in greater Khulna region, said, "Khulna was a common point for people fleeing the war to seek refuge in India. Thousands of people, mostly Hindus, from southern districts of Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Jhalakathi, Barishal, Gopalganj, and Faridpur used the route through Rupsha and Bhairab rivers to enter India."
"The collaborators took advantage of this aspect, lured the people to step into their traps, and then held them captive at the radio station building in Gallamari, torturing them for days before they eventually died."
"After their deaths, the bodies were dumped in Mayur and Bhairab rivers and adjacent areas in Gallamari. The place was full of corpses, skulls, skeletons, bones," he added.
Bidhan Golder, a freedom fighter, said, "The very first Razakar camp and concentration centre was set up in Khulna. Jamaat-e-Islami leader AKM Yusuf, who was the head of the peace committee in Khulna, founded the Razakar forces with 96 men at an Ansar camp on Khan Jahan Ali Road in Khulna."
"The collaborators chose the remote Gallamari area to carry out mass killing of Hindu people and freedom fighters. This continued even a few days before Khulna was freed on December 17, 1971," he added.
Gouranga Nandy, a Liberation War researcher and author of 'History of the Liberation War in Greater Khulna District', said, "During the war, no one dared to go to Gallamari area. Those who went there after independence discovered piles of decomposed corpses and skeletons. Many local freedom fighters were tortured and killed at Gallamari."
"Shanti Lata, daughter of Abinash Saha from Damodar Saha Para village in Phultala upazila, organised her college peers to join the Liberation War. But was later captured by Razakars' Nowsher Sheikh, Zahur Sheikh, Sohrab Mollah, Hamizuddin Sheikh, Safi Ghazi, Asmato Ghazi, Alahi Sana, and Moni Sana. They took her to Gallamari, where she was raped and murdered," he added.
Liberation War researcher Amal Kumar Gain, who authored 'Genocide-Massacre and Mass Grave Survey: Khulna District', published in 2018, said, "After the liberation of Khulna city, about five truckloads of human skulls and bones were recovered from Gallamari Canal and its vicinity. An estimated 15,000 people were killed at the site."
Memorial left in neglect
The radio station area in Gallamari is now a part of the Khulna University campus. The place where the radio station building stood now has a two-storey administrative building of KU.
In 1999, the district administration took an initiative to build 'Khulna Gallamari Independence Memorial'. An open stage was built next to the memorial.
Then in 2007, the district council took initiative to build a modern memorial there, and acquired three acres of khas land for it. Construction began on December 31, 2008.
However, after the main monument was inaugurated in 2011, the rest of the work has not resumed since then.
Visiting the memorial area last week, it was seen that the tiles have been broken in many places. There is no boundary wall around the monument. The whole area has been left unprotected and turned into a hangout place for drug addicts and criminals.
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