Ishangopalpur massacre ( bn, ঈশানগোপালপুর গণহত্যা) refers to the massacre of Bengali Hindus in Ishangopalpur village, in the outskirts of Faridpur on 2 May 1971. The Pakistan army shot and bayoneted 28 Bengali Hindus to death.
Background
On 25 March 1971, the Pakistan army launched
Operation Searchlight
Operation Searchlight was the codename for a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army in an effort to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in former East Pakistan in March 1971. Pakistan retrospectively justified the opera ...
in
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...
. They targeted Hindus as a community for extermination. After a few weeks, they arrived at Faridpur and set up an army base. In the meanwhile, the Hindus of the locality had begun to flee. Around 60 Bengali Hindu families from Faridpur took shelter in Ishangopalpur, a village located six to seven kilometers from the town. The house of former Hindu landlord Ishan Sarkar was located in the village. His grandson Lakshman Sen was staying at the house at that time. After 21 April,
NAP
A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daytime hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to drowsiness during waking hours. A nap is a form of biphasic or polyphasic sl ...
leader Chittaranjan Ghosh, his elder brother Jagadish Chandra Ghosh along with a few influential persons from the Bengali Hindu community took shelter in the house. Some of them began to train themselves to fight the Pakistan army.
Killings
On 2 May, local people led a contingent of the Pakistani army towards the village. They proceeded to the house of Ishan Sarkar. As the residents attempted to flee, they were caught at gunpoint. 29 inmates of the house were rounded up and led to the banks of a pond nearby. They were kicked, punched and bayoneted. Then the adult males were killed one by one in front of their wives and children. Before leaving, the Pakistan soldiers warned in
One person survived after escaping with a bullet wound. The dead were buried beside the pond.
Aftermath
After the independence of Bangladesh, the mass killing site remained unchanged. In 2010, family members of the victims erected a memorial at the mass killing site. On 2 May 2010, the victims were commemorated and verses from the Gita were recited for the peace of the departed souls.