Muzaffarabad massacre 1971 [Patiya, Bangladesh]

[REPORTED AS SEEN]

On 3 May, at the onset of dawn at around 5-20 A.M., while the people of Muzaffarabad were still asleep, the Pakistani military and the Razakars surrounded the village from three sides. There was a light drizzle in the morning. At around 7 A.M., the Pakistani army entered the village in military trucks. At around 8 A.M., they began to go from door to door and started killing the villagers.

Seventy-year-old Rajani Sen was reading the Ramayana for the peace and prosperity of the country. When the Pakistani army and the Razakars arrived at his place, he seated them as guests. One of the Razakars asked Sen to say Jai Bangla. As soon as he had uttered Jai Bangla, a Pakistani soldier put the barrel of his rifle into the throat of Sen and shot him to death. Nabin Sadhu, a 75-year-old hermit who was reciting from the Gita was similarly shot to death. The attackers rounded up the priests of the village and force them to break the images they worshipped. After that, the priests were shot to death.

Social worker Nirmal Sen was dragged along with his father Upendralal Sen to a nearby paddy field. There they were tied together with a gamchha and shot to death. Raimohan, a teacher at the Muzaffarabad High School, who had begun fishing in a village pond, was tied within the fish net along with his son and then shot to death.

The villagers who went into hiding, when the Pakistani occupation army launched the killing spree were rounded up the Razakars one by one. In order to test whether they were Hindu or Muslim, the villagers were asked to recite the kalma. When they failed, they were butchered to death in the manner of zabiha.