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Our Mothers and Sisters

by Rounaq Jahan

in Samuel Totten, et al.
Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views
New York: Garland Publishing, 1997
Chapter 10, pp. 291-316

The following testimony is from M. Akhtaurzzaman Mondol's "Amader-Ma Bon" ("Our Mother and Sisters") which appears in Rashid Haider (Ed.) 1971: Terrible Experiences, p. 197. It was translated by Sohela Nazneen. Reprinted with permission.

We started our fight to liberate Vurungamari from the Pakistani occupation forces on November 11. 1971. We started attacking from West, North and East simultaneously. The Indian air forces bombed the Pakistani stronghold on November 11 morning. On November 13 we came near the outskirts of Vurungamari, and the Indian air force intensified their air attack. On November 14 morning the guns from the Pakistani side fell silent and we entered Vurungamari with shouts of "Joy Bangla" (victory to Bangladesh). The whole town was quiet. We captured fifty to sixty Pakistani soldiers. They had no ammunition left. We found the captain of the Pakistan forces, captain Ataullah Khan, dead in the bunker. He still had his arms around a woman-both died in the bomb attack in the bunker. The woman had marks of torture all over her body. We put her in a grave.

But I still did not anticipate the terrible scene I was going to witness and we were heading toward east of Vurungamari to take up our positions. I was informed by wireless to go to the Circle Officer's office. After we reached the office, we caught glimpses of several young women through the windows of the second floor. The doors were locked. so we had to break them down. After breaking down the door of the room, where the women were kept, we were dumbfounded. We found four naked young women, who had been physically tortured, raped, and battered by the Pakistani soldiers. We immediately came out of the room and threw in four lungis [dresses] and four bedsheets for them to cover themselves. We tried to talk to them, but all of them were still in shock. One of them was six to seven months pregnant. One was a college student from Mymensingh. They were taken to India for medical treatment in a car owned by the Indian army. We found many dead bodies and skeletons in the bushes along the road. Many of the skeletons had long hair and had on torn saris and bangles on their hands. We found sixteen other women locked up in a room at Vurungamari High School. These women were brought in for the Pakistani soldiers from nearby villages. We found evidence in the rooms of the Circle Officers office which showed that these women were tied to the windowbars and were repeatedly raped by the Pakistani soldiers. The whole floor was covered with blood, torn pieces of clothing, and strands of long hair. ...

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Collected from Eyewitness Accounts: Genocide in Bangladesh

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8 Comments

  1. Hello, I am from Pakistan. Is this story really true? I want to know it. Our history tells different from this written text.
    Samir

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  2. hallo! I want to know about the half naked women picture in this page (above). Why this picture in this page? u people all r sick!!! why can't u respect the women? why always think as a sexy goods? sick!!! sick!!! sick!!!

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  3. All this rape story of Muslims girls by Muslim army of Pakistan is disgusting Hindu Indian propaganda. We Muslims should have intercoursed more kafir women- then the children would be Muslims and stop worshipping monkey gods ( hanman).

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  4. I am an Indian. I learned here, only one guy the sensible one, who asked a clear n focused question at first. But no one have answered him! Even someone had slanged upon him. I wonder. So u are the heroes of India n Pakistan? U don't know to respect a man or women either. I doubt, u may not respect even ur family members. All u know is that ur very personal selfishness. U have lives without any purpose. U don't know to speak. How many years will u be illiterate, religious, conservative, make war among the countries? Gaining degrees from schools n universities is not education. See the suroundings n think urself. When will u understand that u r the burdens of the Earth? Let's jump from the roof of some houses for the planet. :)

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  5. I would also like to acknowledge the third comment. U r right, they r sick, only sick.

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  6. I'm a proud Indian and I'm not an anti-Pakistani per se. However, the brutal, horrific crimes that these "brave hearted soldiers of Pakistan" did to these unfortunate, unarmed and helpless men and women, makes me wonder about the sanity & pedigree of the Pak army men. I'm certain that we may need to define a new class of two-legged animals in Zoology, which are obviously bred & reared so profusely in Pakistan!

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  7. lie,full of lies.the brothls and the prostitute of bangladesh were they closed for business in 1971.

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  8. bhai samir let me tell u a similar story of how bengalis slaughtered 120000 non bengalis between 1st march and 25th march 1971.they also raped thousands of non bengali women.maj zia ur rehman who also became bangladesh's president later killed his punjabi CO himself after luring him.this is just an example.you can confirm this from “RAW in Bangladesh by ZainulAbedin (an ex-Mukti Bahini member) on 1971 war. Read Blood and tears by a Pakistani writer about 1971 war. Check the website of Federation of American Scientist on 1971 war. Read “East Pakistan Tragedy” by L.F. Rushbrook Williams.
    and as of upgiven comment sir for your information pakistan has always produced more rice than east pakistan or bangladesh.u may check it up.and no pakistani gotfree text books before 2004!can u please tell me where are the non bengalis of bangladesh bcoz they didnt come here.according to history they were claimed by mukti bahini.u can verify it from upgiven sources.if east pakistan was responsible for 70%of national income(according to sheikh mujib) then why the econmy ofbangladesh is only half of the pakistani economy?
    and for the onewho says we cheat in cricket i dont know whether he is bangladeshi or indian but he is a sure crybaby because both india and bangladesh have been losing to us under supervision of neutral umpires.bangladesh has won 1 odi against us and lost 30 odd odis and all tests.india has won 48 odis and 9 tests while they have lost 69 odis and 12 tests so advise u not to act like a total loser and i am not afraid of feedback like the the anonymous losers here!

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