The Terosree Massacre Day was observed with various programmes including placing of floral wreath at the martyrdom memorial, bringing out colourful rally and discussion at Tersree under Ghior Upazila here on Tuesday.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC-Gen) Sanwarul Haque was present at the function as chief guest while former Ghior Upazila Freedom Fighters Commander Abdul Aziz presided over the function.
Manikganj district Awami League (AL) General Secretary Advocate Abdus Salam, Ghior Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Hamidur Rahman, Ghior Upazila Awami League General Secretary Abdul Awal Mintu and other Awami League leaders and activists including people of all walks of lives were present on the occasion.
On this day, November 22 in 1971, was a 'black day' for the people of the area as they witnessed the heaviest casualties during the War of Liberation. On this day in the brought daylight, the occupation Army of Pakistan, all of a sudden, attacked the village Terosree under Ghior Upazila with the assistance of their local collaborators Al-Badar and Razakers.
The local people consider the day as Terosree Masacre Day, Terosree Tragedy Day or Terosree Mass killing Day.
The Pak army surrounded the village from all sides with arms and ammunition in the morning and started firing to create fear among the people and started searching of freedom loving people from door to door.
First, the Pak army killed the then Zamindar of Terosee Siddheshwar Roy Prosad Chowdhury charging bayonet and burnt him alive covering with blankets.
He was the founder and patron of a lot of educational institutions in the then Manikganj Sub-Division. So he was the first target of the occupational army and their local agents. They also brutally killed the Principal of Terosree College Atiar Rahman by charging bayonet and gouged his eyes.
Then the Pak army started to kill the innocent people of the village of all the communities including Muslims and Hindus one after another. They burnt all the houses of the village and bit the women and the children mercilessly.
The Pak army also killed a total of 43 people in that operation at the village, but 36 of them were identified so far, seven others were not known.
The 36 people who were identified are-Zamindar Siddheswar Prosad Roy Chowdhury, Principal Atiar Rahman, Sadhan Kumar Sarker, Biplob Kumar Saha, Shachindra Nath Goswami, Makhan Chandra Sarker, Shyamlal Sutradhar, Md. Ramjan Ali, Mohendra Das, Nitai Chandra Das, Jogodish Chandra Das, Jogesh Chandra Sutradhar, Delbor Ali, Madhob Datta, Jadob Datta, Jogesh Datta, Narayan Sutradhar, Ram Charan Sutradhar, Shyamapado Nag, Md. Gyada Mia, Md. Kochhim Uddin, Md. Eklas Mollah, Tofil uddin, Md. Waj uddin, Sadhu Chand Das, Sukhon Das, Surendra Das, Jogesh Chandra Das, Gour Chandra Das, Monindra Chandra Das, Shreemanta Das, Pran Gobinda Saha, Jogesh Ghose, Gyanendra Ghose and Tojim Uddin.
A martyrdom memorial was built in 2012 under the auspices of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) at Terosree and the people of all walks of lives including freedom fighters, district and upazila administrations, all political parties in the district, teachers and students pay their homage to the martyrdoms of the village with great respect offering floral wreaths. Discussion meeting also held there.
