Ahmad Istiak

How Ukya Ching Marma earned the Bir Bikram title

Kankan Heninchita Bir Protik: A Khasi woman turned fearless spy

November 13, 1971, Bhurungamari, Kurigram. The day before, the Mukti Bahini captured Pateshwari and positioned themselves at Baghbandha under the leadership of EPR Nayek Ukya Ching Marma. Sensing their presence, the Pakistan forces opened heavy fire, but the freedom fighters remained unflinching.

The condition: money must be used for refugees suffering in the war in East Pakistan

On April 17, 1971, in the mango grove of Baidyanathtala at Bhoberpara, an isolated border area in Meherpur, the acting president and cabinet members of the Mujibnagar Government were sworn in, formally establishing the provisional Government of Bangladesh during the Liberation War.

Around 10:00pm on March 25, 1971, Dr Zikrul Haque had just sat down to eat when one of his sons suddenly announced that the military had surrounded their house in Nilphamari’s Saidpur. While panic spread through the family, Zikrul remained calm, as though prepared for what was to come.

During the 1971 Liberation War, a series of daring operations unfolded across the country, with civilians and trained freedom fighters jointly conducting raids to secure funds for the resistance.

Chattogram woke before dawn to the roar of fire and shuddering steel -- an electric transformer here, a petrol pump there -- until, within an hour, it became a city of explosions.

The royal family handed over 33 rifles and ammunition from their own collection to the freedom fighters

Across the villages in and around Shibpur in Narsingdi, a fierce guerrilla force rose during the Liberation War. Formed at the initiative of the Purbo Bangla Somonnoy Committee of communist revolutionaries and led by leftist student leader Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, it came to be known simply as the Mannan Bhuiyan Bahini.

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

In the wide waters of the Kishoreganj haor, where the tall grasses stand like watchmen, an unlikely guerrilla force rose during Bangladesh’s Liberation War under the leadership of Abdul Motalib Basu, once the feared “Bhorsa Dakat”.

Along the quiet banks of the Halda in Raozan upazila of Chattogram lies Aburkhil, home to the country’s largest Buddhist community and, in 1971, an undeclared liberated zone. In those months of fire and flight, the village became both haven and stronghold, gathering fleeing families, exhausted soldiers, and an unlikely frontline of care and defiance beneath its canopy of trees.

The tale of a fearless freedom fighter from Old Dhaka

On March 24, 1971, the day before the Pakistani army unleashed the infamous “Operation Searchlight,” its top brass flew to Chattogram Cantonment from Dhaka.

This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the 1952 Language Movement. Drawing on research based on various published books, this 21-part series tells the story of the historic struggle for our mother tongue.

This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the 1952 Language Movement. Drawing on research based on various published books, this 21-part series tells the story of the historic struggle for our mother tongue.

This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the 1952 Language Movement. Drawing on research based on various published books, this 21-part series tells the story of the historic struggle for our mother tongue.

Since the British rule, Brahmanbaria had been regarded as the cultural hub of East Bengal. So, it was no surprise that when the news of the language movement reached the district, Brahmanbaria became heavily involved and played a pivotal role.

It was in the newspapers of Sylhet that the first demands for Bangla as the state language were raised.