If she were alive, she would have been a living with the pride of our glorious Liberation War like any of us.

Eighty-five percent mass killing grounds in three southern districts of Bangladesh are yet to be marked and conserved even 45 years after the victory of Liberation War.

It was December 11, 1971. A N M Golam Mostofa, Veteran journalist of the then daily Purba Desh was catering to family duties.

The Pakistan army's killing field in Alamdanga of Chuadanga could be holding further proof of the brutality of the anti-liberation forces.

Shoddy fencing and a few worn out signboards are the only things that separate a piece of land in Gaibandha’s Fulchari – where over 4,000 people were slain by the Pakistan forces in 1971.

Around 3,000,000 people were brutally killed by the then West Pakistan forces during the nine months of Liberation War in1971, their bodies were dumped and buried in hundreds of mass graves and killing fields across the country.

Golahat mass grave near Saidpur railway station in the district bearing the horrifying memory of the massacre of 437 Marwaris by

Mass graves and killing fields of Liberation War in Dhaka are hard to find now as they are almost lost owing to lack of efforts to preserve these sites where many martyrs were buried or thrown in the marshes, canals and rivers after being killed, or were burnt alive.

Tension between Bangalees and Biharis (Urdu speaking people) was soaring since the historic March 7 speech of Bangabandhu in 1971. There were clashes at places, including in Dinajpur and Rangpur, the strongholds of the Biharis who favoured a united Pakistan.

The killings of intellectuals were a well planned strategy to divest a Bangladesh that has just emerged as an independent country of its thinkers, professionals and teachers to cripple its progress.

Top: The killing ground known as 'Pakistan Bagan' near Shibganj Girls' College in Chapainawabganj has almost been devoured by Pagla River, while, right, the mass grave near Gomostapur police station is now about to be obliterated. Bottom: Memorial on the mass grave at Rahanpur Railstationpara in Gomostapur upazila of Chapainawabganj.Photo: STAR