Shabnam Chowdhury

It seems like a long time ago, but I can still remember that warm August afternoon in the summer of 1997. My friend Salma Wafa, who was a doctor, was visiting that day.

The nine-month struggle for our liberation saw endless dead, millions displaced, thousands lost, and countless enduring abject dishonour — and as ironic as it may sound, especially for a country that was formed under the banner of religion, the perpetrators were the very people we were told to be our brethren. For the people of the hitherto East Pakistan it was nine-months of terror.