Martyred Memorial to bet set up in left side of Hardinge Bridge

Ishwardi (Pabna) Correspondent :
The area surrounding Pakshi Hardinge Bridge, a memorial of the Great Liberation War, is dotted with mass graves and slaughterhouses. In 1971, the Pakistani army captured and killed hundreds of freedom fighters here. However, even after 51 years of independence, the mass graves and slaughterhouses in Pakshi area including the area around Hardinge Bridge have not been identified. No initiative has been taken to preserve these slaughterhouses due to the brutality of the Pakistani invaders.
During the liberation war, Pakistani forces camped in the guest house of the paper mill in Pakistan’s North Bengal. From this army camp, the invading forces used to raid various places in Ishwardi and Pabna. Every day, innocent Bengalis who wanted freedom were captured and brutally killed and floated in the river along with mass graves at the foot of Hardinge Bridge, nearby jungles and near Pakshi railway station. Pak army opened torture cells in Pakshi to torture and kill brave freedom fighters and innocent people. Even today, the people of Pakshi shudder when they remember the brutal massacres carried out by the invaders from April 11 to December 14, 1971.
The freedom fighters of Pakshi said that during the liberation war in 1971, Pak forces carried out massacres throughout Pakshi. Bengalis were captured from different areas of Pabna district, Hardinge Bridge, Pakshi Railway Station, Paper Mill Pump Station, both sides of the railway line, Padma river banks, Bagheil, Pakshi Railway Colony and surrounding areas were killed and buried. Under the Hardinge Bridge, innocent people were captured and killed by the invading forces and floated in the river. Many times they shot dead bodies on the bridge and threw them in the river. Hundreds of people were killed indiscriminately in the horrific killings that took place across the country.
Shahidul Islam, the son of the missing martyr and the principal of Dashuria Degree College, said that on August 17, 1971, pak forces abducted Maqbul Hossain from Dashuria Bazar and killed him on the Hardinge Bridge and threw him into the Padma river.
We did not find my father’s body either.
Mohammad Rashidullah, a brave freedom fighter, said that on the afternoon of April 11, the invading forces came to Pakshi and occupied the Hardinge Bridge area. Pakshi Hardinge Bridge continues to bear numerous memories of the Liberation War. On December 14, Pakistani troops escaped from Jessore Cantonment and crossed the Hardinge Bridge from South Bengal to North Bengal. In a situation where tanks, cannons and jeeps were crossing over the Hardinge Bridge, around noon, five warplanes of the Indian Allied Forces started bombing the Hardinge Bridge area. The 12th span of the bridge was broken by the bomb. Meanwhile, the Pakistani soldiers left their tanks and weapons on the Hardinge Bridge and started fleeing.
Liberation war research writer and valiant freedom fighter Professor Abul Kalam Azad said that the entire Pakshi Hardinge Bridge area is a slaughterhouse. This place was chosen for the murder. Sadly, it has not yet been identified as a slaughterhouse.