Genocide Day to be observed in North Bengal Sugar Mills

The historic 47th Genocide Day will be observed tomorrow on 5th May with several programs at the famous North Bengal Sugar Mills Ltd at Gopalpur village under Lalpur Upazila in Natore.

This historic day is also a red-letter day at this sugar mill, where about one hundred innocent persons laborers, staffs and others of this mill were brutally killed on the staircase of a pond on the main mill premises on lines, by machine-gun brush firing by the then barbarous Pakistani occupation forces at a broad day light during the Historic 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

 Their holy dead bodies were then floating with their bloods on the said pond for several days and their holy dead bodies had not yet been found. The pond is now known as 'Shaheed Sagar' in the area.

The Pakistani occupation forces killed Language Movement veteran and freedom fighter Shaheed Lt Md Anwarul Azim, the then administrator of the sugar mill in Gopalpur of Lalpur in Natore and over 150 officers and employees of the mill.
In recognition of Azim's role in the Liberation War Gopalpur rail station was named as "Azim Nagar" as per the direct instruction of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1974.

A "commemorative stamp" was also published in 1994.On 5th May in the morning local people will place wreaths of flowers, petals and will pray for the people who were brutally killed. Later holy Quron Khani, Milad Mahfil and a discussion meeting will be held on the premises of the Shaheed Minar situated there. The family members of the martyrs also will join the occasion.

The families of the martyrs of this historic cruel genocide urged the government to arrange the Genocide Day nationwide in all sugar mills every year on 5th May. This will be recognition to martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country.

Local people demanded also to modernize an existing mini museum to make aware the next generation about the sacrifices of our heroes.  They also emphasized on preserving photos, dresses, martyrs' hand writings, life sketches and other relics.

-AA Correspondent, Naogaon