Name: Wazed Mia
Father’s
Name: Asad Sarder
Vill: Chuknagar
P.O.
and
P.S.:
Dumuria, Dt:
Education:
Illiterate
Age
in 1971: 28/29 yrs
Occupation
in 1971: Chowkidar
Present
Occupation: Night Guard.
Q.
Do you remember about the general elections of 1970?
A.
Yes, I do. Before the elections Sh. Mujibur Rahman Sahib came to Chuknagar
Bazar. He made a speech. Many people came to hear his
speech. I also went to the meeting. I was a supporter of Awami
League. I still support Awami League. In that
election we got a very large number of votes and the Awami
League won with a very big margin. But the Khans
did not transfer power to our leader Sh. Mujib. And then the war started.
Q.
What happened after the war started?
A.
The Khans carried out
terrible repression and torture on us.
Q.
Did you hear that the Pakistan Army attacked
A. Yes, I did. I heard the Khans slaughtered many men, women and
children in
Q.
How did you come to know about it?
A.
Through word of mouth. And then the Khans
came to our village.
Q.
What did the Pakistan Army do when they came to your village?
A.
They did a lot of torture and repression on the local population. They
killed a lot of people of Chuknagar Bazar (Market).
Q.
What else did they do?
A.
They did a lot of cruelty. It cannot be described in words. They caught
women and carried out terrible repression on them.
Q.
From where did the Pakistan Army round up women? From around here?
A They were all from Chuknagar. From all
those who were captured by the Pak
Army a few are still alive. They had taken a large number of them; some of them
died. Four of them are still alive.
Q.
Who are they?
A.
For example, Anil’s wife. Her name is Charubala.
I remember her name. One of them was Hakim’s wife. And another was Fazar’s wife. If I remember correctly Balai’s
wife was also one of the victims. The Khans
raped them.
Q.
Were you present here on the day the Pak Army carried out massacre at Chuknagar?
A.
Yes, I was present here. Military killed many people. It happened on a
Thursday in the month of Jaistha
(Bengali month). I do not remember the date.
Q.
What do you know about that day’s incidents?
A.
At the time there were a large number of people in the village who came
from many areas. They started pouring in from Monday through Tuesday and
Wednesday, and some came on Thursday morning. I do not remember the date. It
was sometime in the month of Jaistha. One group came and another group left. The whole
place was packed with men, women and children. And then on Thursday morning we
had a lot of new-comers. Almost everyone from Dakop, Baithaghata came to Chuknagar,
our village, and halted. It seemed no Hindu remained in Dakop
and Baithaghata. They had all come here. From here
they would go to
Q. Did the local people help
the refugees in crossing over to
A.
Excepting one or two no one did. If the Awami
Leaguers talked they were beaten up. So they went into hiding. Even then they
tried to help them secretly as much as they could. The refugees were robbed all
over the place. Many people snatched away their bags,
they looted money, ornaments and almost any kind of possession from the Hindus travelling to
Q.
Where were you when the Pakistan Army started shooting in Chuknagar?
A. I was at home then. When the shooting started we took the children
and hid ourselves in our house.
Q. How far is your home from Chuknagar Bazar?
A. If someone shouted loudly at Chuknagar we
could hear from our village; let us say about a rashi.
Q.
How far is a rashi,
explain it in terms of a mile.
A.
Let us say, it is one-fourth of a mile. Suddenly shooting started,
first we took the children and hid ourselves in the room and then the shooting
became very rapid and it became unsafe and we dipped into the pond and tried to
keep ourselves as long as possible under water. The pond belonged to me. There
were plenty of trees and shrubs around the banks of the pond. Bullets were
whizzing by over our heads. We remained in water till about 4 pm. The firing
continued for almost 4/5 hrs, starting from around 10/11am and continued till 3
pm or so when it stopped.
Q.
Could you see anything then?
A.
Only firing of guns, just monotonous clattering of guns without
interruption. Sometimes it stopped for a minute and then it would start again.
I didn’t see anything. A little later I came out of the pond and crawled up the
bank. I saw people desperately running around not far from my house. Some were
running in the direction of shooting and some in the opposite direction. A
large number of people died in the shooting. Men, women and children were shot
like birds. As I saw this terrible scene I jumped again into the pond. I
thought all of us would surely die. After the shooting stopped at around 4 pm I
got out of the water and slowly walked towards the bazaar. When I reached the
bazaar I saw countless dead bodies, all around corpses filled the whole area.
There was nothing else. There was no one alive to be seen around. I never saw
such a dreadful scene in my life and I got terribly scared. I ran towards my
home and immediately left for Boising along with all
my family members. Reaching Boising we found the Naksalis
(Communists of Chinese variety) indiscriminately committing murder. On Thursday
there was shooting by the army, and then killing by the Naksal in Boising. Finding no other alternative
we returned home in the morning of Saturday taking some risk. A man called me
and said that I was wanted in the Union Council office immediately and told me
to go to the Chuknagar Union Council office.
Accordingly I went to the Union Council office. At the time I was working as a Chowkidar
(village watchman) under that office. So I had to go because the chairman
called me. If I didn’t go it could mean trouble for me. One Huq
Sahib was then the chairman of the Chuknagar Union.
Q. On the day of shooting was there anyone else hiding in your pond?
A. Several other people jumped into the water. Many of them were from
my village. Altogether there were about 30/40 of them. They were also neck deep
into the water
Q.
Did the Pak soldiers come up to your house?
A.
Yes, they did.
Q.
Didn’t they see you?
A.
No, the Khans didn’t see us.
They passed along the road. But they entered into a couple of houses but they
didn’t find anyone. We were hiding in the pond covered by water lilies; so no
one could see us, neither they suspected that we were
hiding in the pond. And then they proceeded towards the Hindu para (area).
Q.
What did the others do who were also hiding in your pond?
A. Getting out of the pond some ran for safety and some others came to
my house. I gave them shelter. There were 4/5 of them in my house. And then in
the evening I went to Boising.
Q.
Did you go to Boising alone?
A.
No. My family members were with me. There were also several refugees in
the group.
Q.
How many refugees were there with you?
A.
Nine of them. They were all from Baithaghata.
I took them with me. There was one in the group whose name was Shefali. Later I made her my God-sister. Her husband was
killed by the military. Shefali is still alive.
Q.
Where did you meet her?
A.
I was walking down the lane to the jetty ghat
on my way to Boising. And then at some spot I found Shefali wailing sitting near the head of her dead husband.
There were 2/3 other dead bodies and a few children with her. I felt very sad
to see this. I went close to her and after a few words trying to console her I
requested her to come with me. I took them with me on my boat. All together
they were 5 or 6 of them. Some of those who took shelter in my pond stayed
behind in my house. Returning on Saturday from Boising,
I found the dead bodies were still there. A little later after I returned the
chairman sent a man to me and I went to his office. After I reached the council
office the chairman sahib told me that
I would have to dispose of the dead bodies. Then I told him how I could do the
job all by myself. It was not possible for me without help. The chairman said
that there were some other people in the office and I could take their help. He
had called 22 men including me. Among them there were a few from Bihari para. The
chairman said that he would pay us for collecting and throwing the dead bodies
into the river. He gave each of us two thousand taka in cash. Out of fear and
the greed for money we, all 22 of us, started throwing the corpses into the
river and cleared the area.
Q.
How did you do it?
A.
We lied the corpses around bamboo poles with
ropes and carried them on our shoulders to the river bank.
Q.
Where did you dump the bodies?
A.
All in the river. We started disposing of the bodies since the
Saturday. We continued through the Sunday and part of Monday. By this time most
of the bodies started rotting. On Monday most of the bodies were dumped into
ditches, 8 or 9 of them into one ditch. And then the ditches were filled with
soil. We had dug several ditches by the side of the road.
Q.
Did you finish disposing of the bodies by Monday?
A.
Yes, we did. We disposed all of them.
Q.
How many bodies had you disposed in total?
A.
I think we counted around 4000 and then we didn’t count.
Q.
Till which day did you count 4000?
A. Till Monday noon time.
Starting from Saturday we counted 4000. Twenty two of us carried out the job.
And then there were some others in the Bazaar and Patharkhola
which we didn’t count..
Q. Were there more undisposed corpses around which were not counted?
A. Yes, about 300 of them.
Q. No more corpses?
A. There were uncounted ones in
the river. There were too many of them. The military fired into the river and
killed around 4 or 5 hundred of them.
Q. How did the Pakistani
soldiers fire into the river?
A. There were many people on
boats. When shooting started many of them jumped into the river. The Khans shot them also. The bodies were
carried by the downstream. We had a man who was known as Khan Shahib. He was the one who brought the military for
shooting. All these killings were done by him.
Q. Who was this Khan Shahib?
A. This Khan Shahib was from Diana which is
near the
Q.
Was the Khan Shahib a Bengali or Bihari?
A.
Bihari.
Q. Were the local people connected with this massacre?
A. Yes, they were.
Q. Who were they?
A. A few people from our village.
Q. Do you know them?
A. Ali Reza was there, Golam Hossain was there. Seraj Morol, Shahabuddin Morol and then Wahab Shahib were
there. These people conspired with the military and killed all those good men
to the last soul.
Q.
How did these people get together with the military?
A.
They were friendly with the military. They contacted the military and
killed all the good men. They showed the way to the military, they showed them
where the Hindu community lived or had taken shelter. The Razakars also informed the
military and took part in the shooting. They were also with the military. They
were then newly recruited.
Q.
Where did the military come from?
A.
I think they came from Satkhira.
Q.
Were the Razakars
who helped the military local people?
A.
Some of them were from here and adjacent areas, others came from
outside. At least 30 Razakars
were here at that time.
Q.
Were the Razakars
armed with rifles?
A.
All of them had rifles.
Q.
Do you know the name of anyone of them?
A.
One of them was Rashid, one was Kashem and
the other was Abul
.
Q.
Where were they from?
A.
Rashid was from Rasulpur and Kasem was from Naren. It happened
long time ago. I do not remember the names of everyone. One of them was from Fulbaria. There were Seraj, Afzal and Shafi, the last two were from Naren.
There was no one from Chuknagar. Most of them were
from Naren and Rasulpur. A
few of them were from Barat.
Q.
Was there anyone from Malati village?
A.
There was one Seraj from Malati.
Q.
How did you come to know that Razakars were with the Pakistan Army?
A.
I had heard about it, and also seen some of them.
Q.
What did you see?
A.
I saw with my own eyes.
Q.
You said earlier that on that day you had hidden yourself in the pond
when all this had happened. How did you see all this from there?
A.
It was a Thursday that I had hidden in the pond. But the Razakars had
killed some people the day before which I had seen with my own eyes. That was a
Wednesday.
Q.
What happened on Wednesday?
A.
On Wednesday the Razakars
did some selective killing. They killed a mahajan (businessman,
money-lender) near the chairman’s house and killed a few refugees near Malati. Then they killed Gauhar
and Nizam. All these happened on Wednesday. On
Thursday morning the Razakars
were patrolling around Chuknagar. They had plans to
rob the refugees. About 30 of them were in this group. I had seen some of them
in the morning. And then the Khans came
and they joined the Khans. Some of
the Razakars
were with the military who came near our house.
Q.
Sitting in the pond you saw the Razakars?
A.
I saw everything.
Q.
What did you see?
A.
We had a Hindu family as our neighbor. The military set fire and burnt
down their house. At that time the Razakars were with the military. The Razakars told the military that
it was a malaoon’s
(meaning Hindu) house. I heard them say so and saw it happen.
Q.
Who else did you see?
A.
Abul, Rashid, Amzad, Kashem and there was another fellow with them.
Q.
Were they armed?
A.
They had rifles with them. They had also fired and the day before they
themselves killed people.
Q.
Were there any refugees among those who the Razakars had killed on Wednesday?
A.
The Razakars
had killed 3 refugees. Later on they had done terrible repression on the people.Whenever they called me, I had to go with them. I
was a chowkidar of the Union Council. So whenever
they called me I had to comply with, otherwise I would be in serious trouble. I
cooperated with them for fear of life.
Q.
Did you find any wounded man when you were disposing of the dead
bodies?
A.
Yes, I had seen about 23/24 of them. They were still alive. Excepting 3
all of them died the next day. On that day some of our local people were also
killed.
Q. Those refugees who came
to Chuknagar must have been carrying lots of
household goods with them. What happened to those after they were killed or
those which had been left by the survivors? Who had claimed those?
A.
The refugees were carrying lots of their belongings with them. Most of
them were taken away by the Razakars. Gold, silver and cash money were entirely claimed
by the Razakars.
They however had deposited some of the booty with the council office. The
council had paid us from out of this money for disposing of the dead bodies.
Q.
How much money did each of you receive from the council office for
doing this job?
A. They paid us lots of money. And then while collecting the dead
bodies we found some money around the spot. We had surrendered some of the
money to the council office and kept some for ourselves. Later on my brother
and I kept the balance with Wahab Shahib and Razzak
Shahib. We
never got back our money. They simply kept on saying, today, tomorrow and as
usual breaking their promise. I only got back Tk 500/.
They just cheated us. We couldn’t be tough with them. That would have been
risky for us.
Q.
After this incident did any other group of refugees arrive at Chuknagar?
A.
No. None came this way.
Q.
After the war ended were the Razakars caught?
A.
Some of them were caught; some were killed by the Muktibahini (freedom fighter). Sabu was the local commander of the Muktibahini. I handed over some
weapons to the Muktibahini.
These were given to me by some Razakars.
Interviewer: Mahbubur Rahman Mohon
Date of Interview: June 25, 1997
Translator:
Dr. Faruq Aziz Khan
Source: History from Below, Centre for Research on
Liberation War of