Photo : TDM
Five decades after the country’s hard-earned independence, the graves of six martyrs remain buried under a road at Nagargram village in Adarvita union of Jamalpur's Madarganj upazila.
The memory of the innocent victims who were brutally killed by the Pakistan occupation army is nearly forgotten as no memorial or name plaque was built here.
In 1991, multinational development agency 'CARE' built a mud road over this killing ground after the then chairman of that union, Ismail Hossain, made a plan for it. The authorities concerned did not refrain from the act despite protests from freedom fighters and conscious people of the area.
Later LGED paved this road, permanently hiding the graves of six martyrs there.
According to locals, a group of Pakistani soldiers left Sarishabari's Bhatara to launch an attack at Madarganj in September 1971. They lost their track and entered Nagargram at Adarvita union. At the time, a speech-impaired youth named Mecher Ali of the village threw a brick at their jeep. They immediately got down from the jeep, tied Mecher Ali with a tree and shot him dead. As local residents A. Gani, Kuddus, Nur Hossain, Ghota Mia and Bhola Mia protested, the barbaric soldiers opened fire on them indiscriminately. After two or three days, locals took the bodies of six martyrs from a tank and buried them beside the road.
After independence, the then Awami League MP Karimuzzaman Talukder, Awami League leader Rafiq Uddin Talukder and administration officials visited the spot and declared it as a killing ground. But no step was taken to preserve the memory of the martyrs and later the graves were buried under the road.
TDM/SD
