The Other Side of Shaheen Baug (2)

The Other Side of Shaheen Baug (2)

Location Faridpur, Bangladesh, 

Date21 April 1971 

Target Bengali Hindus

Weapons Light machine guns, 

Semi-Automatic rifles
Deaths 8,

Perpetrators Pakistan Army

Sree Angan massacre refers to the massacre of Bengali Hindu monks of Sree Angan monastery in Faridpur on 21 April 1971. Eights monks were killed by the Pakistan Army in the massacre.

Sree Angan is a Hindu ashram of the Mahanam Sampradaya order of Vaishnavism, in the Goalchamat locality of Faridpur town.

On 21 April, the Pakistan army landed in Faridpur. From Dhaka they crossed the Padma at Goalundo Ghat and proceeded towards Faridpur. Around evening as they were entering Faridpur they were passing through Goalchamat. 

At this point, their Bihari collaborator stopped them by the Sree Angan Ashram. The Pakistan Army surrounded the Ashram and with the help of Bihari collaborators entered the compound. At the news of their arrival, some of the resident monks fled the monastery. But nine monks refused to leave the Ashram. At that time the monks were singing kirtan at the prayer hall of the temple. 

The kirtan had chants of "Jaya Jagatabandhu Hari! Jaya Jaya Jagatabandhu Har!!".  It is said that the Pakistani soldiers mistook the chants as "Jai Bangabandhu" and the Bihari collaborators too convinced them that the monks were chanting for victory to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The Pakistani soldiers entered the prayer hall and dragged the monks to the open space in front of the temple, beneath the elephant apple tree adjacent to the temple. One monk, Nabakumar Brahmachari escaped and locked himself up in the room beneath the staircase. 

The remaining eight were made to stand in a line in front the Pakistani soldiers who had already taken position. According to eye witness accounts, twelve shots were fired one by one. The monks chanted "Jaya Jagatabandhu Hari" as they fell down.

The soldiers and the Bihari collaborators looted valuables and cash from the Ashram.On the next morning, the corpses were taken away by a Faridpur Municipality truck. On 26 April, the Pakistan army destroyed the shikhara of the temple using dynamite.

Aftermath

The brutal killings on the very first day of Pakistani occupation created panic among the Hindu citizens. Many of them left the town for countryside. Two surviving monks Amar Bandhu and Haripriya Brahmachari recovered the holy relic of Lord Jagatbandhu and carried them in a casket to India.

According to Rabindranath Trivedi, Captain Jamshed who had commanded the massacre and the subsequent desecration and destruction of the temple, committed suicide in front of the altar of Lord Jagatbandhu Sundar a few days before the surrender of Pakistan Armed Forces on 16 December 1971. He was reportedly buried within the Sree Angan compound, near the pond of the Shiva temple by the collaborators. According to the testimony of freedom fighter Prabodh Kumar Sarkar, Captain Jamshed had become a lunatic before his death.The monks returned after the liberation of Bangladesh. They restored the holy relic and rebuilt the damaged temple. New monks were gradually initiated in the order.

Ramna massacre was the massacre of the Hindus who lived in the region around the Ramna Kali temple by the Pakistani occupation army on the night of 27 March 1971. It is estimated that around 250 Hindus were killed in the massacre.

The village around the Ramna Kali temple was an ancient Hindu settlement at the centre of the Dhaka Race Course. It was inhabited by around 250 Hindu men, women and children. Even in the most deadliest of Hindu-Muslim riots in Dhaka, the village has remained unaffected.

Events

Dr. John E. Rohde of USAID, who visited the place on 29 March, witnessed charred corpses of men, women and children who had been killed by machine guns and then set on fire. The Pakistani army doused the temple with petrol and gunpowder and set it on fire, along with around 50 cows. 101 Hindus including the priest of the Ramna Kali temple were killed.

I have mentioned just two massacres to make a point about the life of Hindus in Bangladesh. Even there the damaged temples were rebuilt with the help of the Government there. They repaired the temples and now punishing the war criminal because after Leader of RSS came to power, there was genuine fear in Bangladesh about the Hindu backlash about the Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh, mainly Assam. 

Nehru had protected the Muslims who wanted to come back after the initial madness after the partition was over. By the Nehru Liaqat pact the Hindus in Pakistan were to be considered as Pakistani citizens. This was cemented by the Citizenship Act 1955.

This suited both. Pakistani Muslims had a Hindu slave class. Indian Muslims gained in confidence as to their coreligionists have enslaved a large chunk of Hindus. It suited Nehru as the Hindus as Hostage will ensure the safety of Muslims in India. Even Gandhi wanted it that way. He had advised Hindus in Pakistan to embrace Islam, if need be, but not to come to India. In Nuakhali at the height of the riots he had advised Hindu girls to bite their tongue so hard that they would die during rape,. So they will die pure. Remember, those days he was having his Brahmacharya experiments, with two naked girls on both sides, ying and yang.

Over the years many Hindus fled Bangladesh. Once the Hindu population of 30% fell to below 10%. But they remained refugees for ever, always under the fears of expulsion.

After Hindu Prime Minister came to power, one small change took place. Hindu refugees cannot be driven back. It also commenced the National Citizenship Roll count in Assam. About forty lakh mostly Muslims were found to be noncitizens. Then Supreme Court as usual intervened to dilute the excersise.

As normally happens, Muslim celebration of SC intervention was swift, ISIS style. 

Five Bengali Hindus were lined up in Tinsukia and shot dead.

In UP, Government was handling cow smuggling problem firmly. He knew that whit the proceeds of one cow, one Hindu girl could be purchased in Bangladesh.

Then came the Supreme Court order that he would be prosecuted in a decade old false case. Same night a Muslim gang first cut the tongues of two Sadhus in a temple, then killed them. A clear message to the Hindus that they are still slaves.

These two sadhus were for cow protection. 

So much about the ‘Majesty of Justice’ the Opposition Party fellows and the judges appointed by them shout from the rooftops.

(My painting from Partition series, circa 2009)