The snapshot of a long march heading for Delhi in October 1971 to make the world community aware of the atrocities of Pakistan forces during the Liberation War. Photo: CourtesyTamanna KhanOctober 15, 1971. Thirty-eight young men from Bangladesh started marching towards Delhi from Bahrampur of Murshidabad in India.
The mission was to make the world aware of the Pakistani forces' atrocities on the people of Bangladesh during the Liberation War in 1971. The banner they carried inscribed “Biswa Bibek Jagoron Podojatra” (World Conscience Revival March).
Exactly forty years later, those heroes will today pass on their campaign to some representatives of the present generation at the liberation war museum in the capital.
The programme will begin at 4:00pm.
To launch a new campaign, some 10 students from different educational institutions will march from Dhaka to Sunamganj to raise fund for the proposed new building of the Liberation War Museum that will preserve the history of the war.
The new building is likely to be set up at the city's Aagargaon.
The 38 heroes of 1971 and their noble endeavour were about to be lost in the tide of time after the war was won on December 16, 1971. Although they returned to their free homeland soon after the independence, not many people had remembered of their campaign.
The liberation war museum authorities, however, came across Dilip Kumar Nag, one of the heroes, in August last year in Brahmanbaria.
The museum officials dramatically met this war veteran during their visit to Sahbajpur High School in the district as part of their campaign to share liberation war history with schoolchildren.
Subsequently, two more members of the group were found on information obtained from Dilip, and the museum authorities organised a reception programme for the three on October 2 last year, said Ranajit Kumar, project coordinator of the museum.
“We weren't valued all these years,” Nag lamented while talking to The Daily Star last night, “I had communication with only three of the group while the others got separated.”
The great historical breakthrough, however, was yet to be made. With the news of the reception published on daily newspapers, more than 30 members of the team contacted the museum authority from across the country.
To celebrate this great achievement, the liberation war museum is all set to organise a grand reception for all of them at the liberation war museum tomorrow.
They will also be awarded with citation papers, said Mofidul Haque, a trustee of the museum.
After sharing their memories and experience, they will handover the flag of “Swadhin Bangla” (the first national flag designed with the country map inscribed in the red circle) to the representatives of the present generation.
The team will begin their march on Saturday, October 16, from the capital towards the martyr monument at Doloura, Sunamganj. On the way, they will visit different schools where the museum had reached out to relate the glorious history of the liberation war to the children.
“We feel inspired by the group of freedom fighters. Through our march we want to feel the pain hundreds of thousands refugees underwent during the liberation war. After the war, these people were forgotten. We want to carry the news of their effort and courage to the countrymen,” said Sharif, one of the representatives of the present generation.
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