The memorial built in Fatullah in memory of the martyrs of the Hariharpara massacre.

Fifty-three years after Bangladesh's independence, countless stories remain untold. Part 3 of this 12-part series tells the story of the brutal killing ground in Hariharpara village in Enayetnagar union of Fatullah, Narayanganj, where thousands were shot dead by the Pakistani army.

Throughout the Liberation War, the oil depots along the Buriganga River in Narayanganj became sites of unspeakable horror.

Witnesses recall how, day after day, trucks would arrive carrying men and women picked up from Dhaka, Narayanganj, and Munshiganj. The men were tortured in makeshift cells during the day, then blindfolded and executed by the riverbank at night.

The women were confined, subjected to rape and torture, and killed if they fought back.

Abdur Rashid Bhola Miya, 75, a survivor, broke down as he remembered: "There was not a single night during the war when they [Pakistan soldiers] didn't kill men or assault women."

Standing near the Buriganga, tears welling in his eyes, he pointed to the Jamuna Oil Depot -- once a killing ground where hundreds were shot dead by the occupation army.

The Daily Star visited Hariharpara village in October this year and spoke with several eyewitnesses of the massacre.

THE HORROR BEGINS

Hariharpara village lies along the bank of the Buriganga in Enayetnagar union of Fatullah, Narayanganj. By the river stood two industrial sites: the Pakistan National Oil Company (later Jamuna Oil Depot) and the Dhaka Vegetable Oil Mill (later Sena Edible Oil Industry).

With the help of local Bihari collaborators, the Pakistan army turned these facilities into torture cells and execution grounds after the black night of March 25, 1971, survivors said.

When the enemy invaded, most of the village's 3,000 residents fled in fear, with only a handful staying behind.

Inside the depot, soldiers set up cells where detainees were bound, beaten, and tortured.

Witness Md Solayman

At night, victims were taken to the riverbank. During low tide, they were forced into knee‑deep water with hands and feet tied; during high tide, they were taken to the jetty and shot, their bodies dumped into the current, according to locals who heard it from the Razakars and survivors who managed to escape by chance.

Some corpses would drift away, but others had to be dragged into mid‑river the next morning. Locals were forced to do this inhumane task.

Bhola Miya recalls: "Every night at least 70 to 80 people were killed, sometimes hundreds. We had to throw the bodies into the river ourselves. Burial was impossible. Those that didn't drift away were eaten by animals."

Another villager, Mohammad Solayman,80, adds: "The screams of women being raped would echo throughout the night. We couldn't sleep. Those who refused were shot and thrown into the river."

Residents of nearby Fazilpur confirm that while oil shipments and production continued by day, nights were reserved for killing. Both the oil depot and oil mill were staffed largely by Bihari workers. Even months after victory, villagers found decomposed bodies floating in the river.

Witness Bhola Miya

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

Despite the scale of atrocity, Hariharpara remained largely forgotten. Resident Md Hanif says: "We knew of mass killings at places like Baktabali or Aliganj, but not of Hariharpara. The extent of slaughter here was unknown to many."

Yet the outside world did take notice. On January 10, 1972, the Washington Post published a story titled "The Killing at Hariharpara" by Lewis M Simons, who later went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

Based on his visit two days earlier, Simons wrote that at least 20,000 people were murdered here. He described firing squads forcing bound Bangalees into the river, where gunfire and screams tore through the night until dawn.

"Beginning at sundown each evening the soldiers dragged the Bengalis, men and women, bound together to the Buriganga river front to be killed. While their executioners loomed above them on a wooden pier they were made to wade out into knee-deep water. Then the rifles opened up. And the firing and the screaming shattered the hot night air until dawn," he wrote.  

Each morning village boatmen were forced to bring their high-powered craft into the bloody water and haul the bodies out to midstream, where they were cut loose to drift downriver, the report stated, adding, "Victims were brought to Hariharpara by truck from other villages from the nearby town of Narayanganj and from the East Pakistani capital of Dacca, eight miles to the north."

Their hands tied behind their backs, they were kept prisoners in a large river side warehouse of the Pakistan National Oil company until their time came to die, the report added.

The massacre continued until December 15, the eve of Pakistan's surrender.

A monument now stands at the Jamuna Oil Depot gate, depicting blindfolded civilians being shot by soldiers.