Barisal Free Day today
The local administrations will observe Barisal Free Day in Barisal city and district today marking the 44th anniversary of the districts liberation from Pakistani occupation army. On this day in 1971, Mukti Bahini (freedom fighters) took control of Barisal city, the then district headquarters and second largest river port of the country defeating Pakistan occupation army in several pitched encounters. Barisal district command of Muktijoddha Sangsad as part of marking the 44th anniversary of the liberation organised a discussion meeting at Barisal Government Girls School today morning.
Story said that the Pakistani army after an air raid on 17 April, occupied the then Barisal district town on 25 April, 1971 and opened its regional headquarters and cantonment at complex of the Water and Power Development Authority on the bank of the River Kirtankhola.
The then Pakistan-controlled local administration had announced an indefinite curfew on the night of December 7 and the occupying army, numbering about 400, and some of their collaborators left Barisal in the early hours of December 8 through waterway as the freedom fighters had surrounded in the town and disrupted road communications. Four fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force had sped immediately and destroyed all water transports killing most of the Pakistan army personnel and their collaborators on the day.
At about 10.30 am that day, a group of freedom fighters, led by base commander Sultan Master, entered from southern and western parts and captured Barisal Kotwali police station. As base commanders Nizamuddin and Mazid Khan, and sub-sector commander Shahjahan Omar, entered the city, Barisal came under the control of Mukti Bahini by the afternoon of December 8. The collaborators, who took shelter inside WAPDA quarters , later surrendered to Nurul Islam Manjur, the then district Awami League secretary and organizer of liberation movement in Barisal, and Mahfuz Alam Beg, sub-sector commander, without any bloodshed on December 18.
