Ahmad Istiak

Around 10:00pm on March 25, 1971, Dr Zikrul Haque had just sat down to eat when one of his sons suddenly announced that the military had surrounded their house in Nilphamari’s Saidpur. While panic spread through the family, Zikrul remained calm, as though prepared for what was to come.

During the 1971 Liberation War, a series of daring operations unfolded across the country, with civilians and trained freedom fighters jointly conducting raids to secure funds for the resistance.

Chattogram woke before dawn to the roar of fire and shuddering steel -- an electric transformer here, a petrol pump there -- until, within an hour, it became a city of explosions.

The royal family handed over 33 rifles and ammunition from their own collection to the freedom fighters

Across the villages in and around Shibpur in Narsingdi, a fierce guerrilla force rose during the Liberation War. Formed at the initiative of the Purbo Bangla Somonnoy Committee of communist revolutionaries and led by leftist student leader Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, it came to be known simply as the Mannan Bhuiyan Bahini.

Throughout the Liberation War, the oil depots along the Buriganga River in Narayanganj became sites of unspeakable horror.

In the wide waters of the Kishoreganj haor, where the tall grasses stand like watchmen, an unlikely guerrilla force rose during Bangladesh’s Liberation War under the leadership of Abdul Motalib Basu, once the feared “Bhorsa Dakat”.

Along the quiet banks of the Halda in Raozan upazila of Chattogram lies Aburkhil, home to the country’s largest Buddhist community and, in 1971, an undeclared liberated zone. In those months of fire and flight, the village became both haven and stronghold, gathering fleeing families, exhausted soldiers, and an unlikely frontline of care and defiance beneath its canopy of trees.

The tale of a fearless freedom fighter from Old Dhaka

On March 24, 1971, the day before the Pakistani army unleashed the infamous “Operation Searchlight,” its top brass flew to Chattogram Cantonment from Dhaka.

This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the 1952 Language Movement. Drawing on research based on various published books, this 21-part series tells the story of the historic struggle for our mother tongue.

This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the 1952 Language Movement. Drawing on research based on various published books, this 21-part series tells the story of the historic struggle for our mother tongue.

This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the 1952 Language Movement. Drawing on research based on various published books, this 21-part series tells the story of the historic struggle for our mother tongue.

Since the British rule, Brahmanbaria had been regarded as the cultural hub of East Bengal. So, it was no surprise that when the news of the language movement reached the district, Brahmanbaria became heavily involved and played a pivotal role.

It was in the newspapers of Sylhet that the first demands for Bangla as the state language were raised.

The arrival of approximately 50,000 Urdu-speaking Biharis in Dinajpur, Parbatipur and Syedpur  after the 1947 Partition created a new social dynamic.

On February 27, 1948, some days after Dhirerandranath Datta’s proposal of Bangla as the state language was opposed by the Muslim League, a protest meeting was held in Khulna’s Daulatpur College.

The Language Movement inspired creative expressions of resistance in Kurigram. Travelling singing groups wove humorous dialogues demanding Bangla as the state language into their songs. Baul singers infused their melodies with the powerful slogans of the movement. Theatre troupes, in turn, poignantly depicted the sacrifices made by the martyrs on stage

Despite the petition by opposing groups demanding Urdu as the state language, the intense wave of the Language Movement swept through Kishoreganj in 1948.

The wave of the Language Movement reached Cox’s Bazar after Farid Ahmed, a teacher from the southeastern district, raised his voice. The lecturer of Dhaka Intermediate College was scolded by Pakistan’s Chief Secretary Aziz Ahmed for joining demonstrations in December 1947 against the omission of Bangla from Pakistan Public Service exams.