<i>The mosque still remains witness to Pak brutality </i>
Premises of this mosque at Gobinda village in Pabna town witnessed the most unimaginable barbarity on March 26 in 1971 when the Pakistan occupation army opened fire at the people taking part in janaza prayers as part of a deceased villager's funeral.Photo: STAR
It was around 5:00pm on March 26, 1971. People gathered in front of a mosque at Gobinda village in Pabna town to attend janaza prayers before burial of a deceased political activist. But the innocent people experienced the most unimaginably horrible experience as the Pakistan occupation army went in a shooting spree during the funeral prayers. One person was killed and 10/12 others including the imam (leader) of the prayers were injured in the brutal attack of the Pakistan occupation army at the very beginning of the Liberation War, said elderly people including freedom fighters of Pabna. Awami League activist Shukur Ali, a young man of Krishnapur village in the district town, died at Pabna General Hospital on March 25 evening following his serious injuries in a political clash the same day. Amid curfew, relatives and neighbours took the body to the village on March 26 afternoon with special permission from the then deputy commissioner and arranged janaza prayers for burial of the body. “Several hundred people of Krishnapur, Gobinda and adjoining villages participated in the prayers held on the premises of the mosque at Gobinda village after the Asar prayers,” said freedom fighter and journalist Md Robiul Islam Robi, also an eyewitness to the incident. “Moulana Ibrahim Khalil, imam of the mosque, was conducting the prayers when 8 to 10 Pakistani soldiers came to the spot and started firing at the people attending the prayer,” he said. "Brutal Pak army shot dead Abdus Samad, an elderly person of Krishnapur village, who was standing beside me during the prayers. Moulana Ibrahim Khalil and several others including Md Abdus Samad, Md Badiuzzaman and Md Akkas Ali received bullet injuries during this attack. Leaving the prayer, people started running for life," he added. “It was beyond our imagination that a regular force would attack innocent people attending janaza prayers,” said freedom fighter Baby Islam. Mass people of the area along with Bangalee members of the then EPR fought against the Pakistan occupation army on March 27 and 28 in front of Pabna Telephone Exchange camp and killed around 40 Pakistani soldiers there, he said. Later on March 29, the Pakistan force started air attack on the freedom fighters to make way for retreat of their 182-strong force staying in Pabna BSCIC camp. When the occupation forces tried to leave the district on Pabna-Ishwardi road, the mass people, mostly armed with locally made weapons, chased and fought against them at Dashuria and Gopalpur in Ishwardi upazila on March 29. As the Pakistani soldiers either got killed or fled from the district, Pabna remained freed from March 30 to April 9. Later large contingents of the occupation forces entered the district on April 10. They committed massacre and inhuman torture on the people while freedom fighters continued resistance for months till the final victory in December 1971.
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