Sylhet Bureau :
In the great liberation war of 1971, the memorials of the brave martyrs are disappearing from Biyanibazar due to lack of preservation.
There is fear that the history of heroism and sacrifice of martyrs will disappear.
Martyr’s family members claim that if these structures are preserved by the government, the new generation will know the history of freedom.
Even after so many years of independence, many places including slaughterhouses, mass graves, and torture cells are lying neglected in Biyanibazar along with various memorials of the liberation war.
Most of these historical places have no way for the young generation to know if a local elder does not show them! There is disagreement about some places, and no one remembers many places correctly.
A few monuments were built in Biyanibazar to commemorate the glory and martyrs of Bengalis in the Great War of Liberation.
But due to lack of care and maintenance, most of these pillars built to protect the memory of the martyrs are losing their signs.
In Biyanibazar Upazila, which is haunted by the memories of the liberation war, the Kanthaltala slaughterhouse, which bears witness to the tragic memories of the war, is lying in neglect.
From a distance, it looks like a half-built pillar or foundation stone of a building. Toilets, sewage drains, roads and government buildings are nearby.
There is no way to know that this is a men’s slaughterhouse without reading the inscription on the plaque.
During the liberation war, one of the signs of the brutality of the Pak forces is the Kanthaltala slaughterhouse in Biyanibazar Upazila Complex. Hundreds of dead bodies, human skeletons were recovered from this place after independence.
From the month of August during the liberation war till the moment of independence, the Pakistani army with the help of local collaborators held the freedom fighters, their relatives and innocent people and carried out massacres.
Freedom seekers, innocent people who were captured from different places were killed here indiscriminately. Among them is Shahid Kamar Uddin, the only expatriate baul artist of the country.
Many of those captured were forced to dig their own graves, survivors said.
However, after the war, buildings and toilets have been built in this place without any memorials.
After many efforts, a memorial plaque has been erected here, but it remains hidden from the public eye.
