Rajshahi Days-1

Jan 25, 2012
I met Mrs. Suraiya Begum today. She lives in a big mansion in Rajshahi. Once her house was full of people. She and her husband late Advocate Abdus Salam had 3 sons, 5 daughters and many helping hands living in the house. Now the house is almost empty. Mrs. Suraiya Begum lives there with one of her daughters and grandchildren.

Mrs. Suraiya Begum talks about her life in Calcutta

Suraiya was born in Sundarpur, Darshana. She was married at an early age to Mr. Abdus Salam of KrishanaNagar. After the  partition she migrated to Rajshahi with her husband and in laws. They exchanged most of their property in India. Mr. Salam was a successful lawyer and was an influancial man in Rajshahi.
But tragedy struck the family in 1971. On 25 March, Pakistani Army came to their house and took her two sons away. The eldest son was going to Engineering University and the second one was in Rajshahi College. They also took her 2 of her brother in laws and a nephew that night. These 5 innocent men never came home.  Mrs. Suraiya Begum sheds her tears till this day for her sons.

I also met her brother in law, Mr. Badiuazzaman. He too had migrated from India during partition as his father, who was a government employee, opted for Pakistan. They migrated thinking, Pakistan would be a new country for the Muslims. But things changed in 24 years. The East Pakistanis felt they were treated differently by the West Pakistanis. The liberation war started in March 1971. Mr. Badiuzzaman was a freedom fighter. He fought for his country, he fought to save the people of his country. He too remembers the 5 members of his family who were lost forever on March 25, 1971.

The 5 men of the family who were taken away by the Pakistani Army on Mar 25, 1971. They were gone without a trace.