The preservation of the mass killing ground and torture cell at the then WAPDA campus, used as regional cantonment of the Pakistan occupation army during the liberation war, has remained stalled. Barisal city mayor Shawkat Hossain Hiron on June 14 unveiled the curtain of a proposed project to preserve the spots, but the initiative fell through. After visiting the spots recently, it was found that even the signboard of the project was broken and damaged.
Enayet Hossain Chowdhury, a freedom fighter, said Pakistani army after an air raid on April 17, occupied the then Barisal district town on April 25, 1971 and opened its regional headquarters and cantonment at the complex of the Water and Power Development Authority on the bank of the River Kirtankhola.
Till December 8, 1971, when ‘Mukti Bahini’ (freedom fighters) took control of Barisal town, WAPDA campus was used as mass killing and torture ground of Pak occupation army and their collaborators.
The spots, along with others, are memorial of the glorious independence war in the Barisal city and but there was no initiative to preserve it, he added.
Sushanta Ghose, who worked on the mass killing grounds of the region under a project of Muktijoddha Jadughar, said Barisal Sangskritik Sangathan Samanwya Parishad in 2009 took an initiative with the help of Liberation War Museum and Barisal City Corporation to construct a memorial complex at the WAPDA mass killing and torture ground and in the adjacent areas.
Syed Dulal, president of BSSSP, said BCC in coordination with BSSSP and Muktijuddha Jadughar, planned to preserve and beautify this historical place and construct a walkway at a cost of about Tk 50 lakh.
Preservation of mass killing grounds and torture cells will not only help the trial of war criminals, but also revive the objective history of liberation war, told MG Kabir Vulu, a freedom fighter tortured in cell.
Nikhil Chandra Das, chief executive officer of the city corporation, said Tarik Ali, a trustee of the museum, handed over a design of that complex to the city corporation authorities in May 2011 for preparing a project.
However for lack of fund that project was not implemented yet, said Nandita Das, chief planning officer of BCC.
BCC was preparing a plan for the Muktijoddha and Baddhya Bhumi Smriti Complex project and would place it before the local government ministry soon, the BCC officials said.
-With New Age input
