Forgotten Victims of Bangladesh's Liberation War Chapter - The Daldalia Massacre of Bengali Hindus

By Vinay Nalwa

Can a digital edit erase a real-world genocide? In 2016, Wikipedia moderators quietly deleted the standalone article for the Daldalia massacre of June 2, 1971. The justification was standard internet bureaucracy: a apparent lack of English-language media coverage. This digital scrubbing points to a troubling reality. Global platforms frequently sideline the history of regional minorities. Yet, internet algorithms cannot erase what is written in blood. The fact remains that on that summer morning, Pakistani forces and local collaborators systematically targeted and slaughtered Bengali Hindus. A webpage can be removed with a click, but the memory of the survivors and their children is permanent. Their history will always outlive the shifting standards of online platforms.

The Daldalia massacre unfolded during the wider genocide that followed the launch of Operation Searchlight by the Pakistan Army on 25 March 1971. Designed to crush the Bengali independence movement, the operation was a systematic campaign of mass violence across East Pakistan. The estimates of the death toll vary from around 200,000 to as many as three million. There is no dispute about the scale and brutality of the atrocities. Beyond armed resistance, the campaign deliberately targeted civilians, including students, intellectuals, political activists, and minority communities, particularly Bengali Hindus, leaving a trail of destruction that ultimately culminated in the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971.

Daldalia, now in Kurigram District and then part of Greater Rangpur, was far more than an isolated rural village. Situated close to the Bonarpara Railway Junction and the Jamuna (Brahmaputra) River, it occupied a strategically significant position along an important rail-and-river transport corridor. This connectivity enabled the Pakistan Army to move troops and supplies rapidly across northern Bangladesh. Following Bengali resistance and armed clashes in nearby Damodarpur during May 1971, the Pakistani military adopted a policy of collective punishment against villages located along this vital route, fearing that losing control of these communication lines would jeopardise their northern military operations.

The village was overwhelmingly Hindu in composition. Most residents belonged to the Scheduled Caste communities traditionally engaged in fishing and boatmanship, while a sizeable business community formed the commercial backbone of the local economy. During the historic 1970 general election, the village overwhelmingly supported the Awami League's demand for regional autonomy. Combined with their religious identity, this political choice made the Hindu population particularly vulnerable. Local Jamaat-e-Islami leaders and members of the so-called Peace Committee reportedly identified Hindu households in advance, enabling the Pakistan Army to carry out carefully planned operations with local assistance.

The following account is based on information preserved by author and researcher Vladimir Adityanath, author of The Manipur Conundrum, who personally knew Surjokanto Sen, the son of a survivor of the Daldalia Massacre. Some contextual details may overlap with the preceding historical background because they form part of the witness's recollection and have been retained to preserve the integrity of the original narrative -

"Daldalia is today in Kurigram, then part of Greater Rangpur. Daldalia was an overwhelmingly Hindu-majority village. By 1971, it was mostly populated by Namahshudras, Kayasthas, Rajbonshis and a sizeable businessman community. I knew the son of a survivor of the massacre. His name is Surjokanto Sen.

Daldalia was close to the Bonarpara Railway Junction and the Jamuna (Brahmaputra) river with strategic rail and river connectivity even in 1971. That allowed Pakistani Army and Razakars to deploy rapidly and move with speed.

The Jamaat-e-Islami had a strong presence in this region with leaders like Abu Saleh Md Abdul Aziz Mia, Ruhul Amin, Abu Muslim Md Ali, Abdul Latif, Najmul Huda and Abdur Rahman Mia operating. Attacks in this region were often pre-planned operations where local collaborators and so-called 'Peace Committee' members gathered details of Hindu residents and Muslim Bengali nationalists in advance. This allowed the Pakistan Army to gain the element of surprise and the attack was surgically executed.

Both the Pakistan Army and their non-Bengali collaborators were involved in the attack. Surjo Da said that Razakars literally guided them to the village. There was no early warning, no chance to run or react. Most were picked up while they were sleeping.

The attack was a planned operation and all exits were sealed beforehand. Initially there was widespread looting and vandalism. Hindu men were tortured and Surjo Da said at least a dozen Hindu women were raped and tortured for several hours. Nails were ripped out, slashing wounds were inflicted, and victims suffered blunt trauma through blows from rifle butts and kicks.

By early morning they took 25 Hindus to the Phulchhari Army camp. There began a second round of torture. Three young Hindu teenagers were released because of their age and because they had not voted for the Awami League, but only after prolonged torture.

The other 22 Hindus were dragged to a field with their hands tied. Dinesh Chandra Sarkar managed to take advantage of a brief lapse in concentration and escaped. The rest were lined up and gunned down before being stabbed with bayonets to confirm they were dead.

The entire Hindu population had to leave Daldalia.

The Kayasthas and Baishya (entrepreneur class) families, including the Sen family, never returned. Most migrated to Meghalaya and Karimganj in Assam. After the war, a large percentage of the poorer Hindu population returned, perhaps as many as sixty percent.

Surjo Da moved to Shillong but became a victim of the anti-outsider violence and ethnic cleansing that affected Meghalaya in 1979. He spent the final years of his life as a penniless beggar in Kolkata and died in 2013. I met him personally in 2009."

While the survivor-family testimony reconstructs the sequence of events and preserves the lived memory of the massacre, a translated report published by Bizbdnews (archived on 4 March 2016) broadly supports this account and preserves additional details relating to the victims and the aftermath.

The report preserves the names of those killed: Govinda Sarkar, Basanta Sarkar, Bhuvan Mohan Sarkar, Sarat Chandra Sarkar, Nishi Sarkar, Kamini Modak, Mahendra Sarkar, Sachin Sarkar, Ashwini Sarkar, Akalu Chowdhury, Devak Sarkar, Sridam Mohant, Bhikkhu Sarkar, Gagan Sarkar, Niranjan Sarkar, Rati Sarkar, Raj Sarkar, Banbasi Sarkar, Ruhini Sarkar and Raghal Sarkar.

The massacre fundamentally altered the social and demographic character of Daldalia. Although many poorer Hindu families eventually returned after the war, much of the village's merchant and educated classes left permanently, rebuilding their lives across the border in Meghalaya, Assam and other parts of India. Their departure transformed the community that had existed for generations.

More than five decades later, the victims remain without a permanent memorial. No government institution or organisation has provided meaningful recognition or compensation to their families. Much of what survives today is preserved through oral testimony and scattered local reporting rather than official historical documentation.

The Daldalia massacre represents far more than the tragedy of a single village. It illustrates the systematic targeting of Bengali Hindus during the 1971 genocide and the subsequent disappearance of many such massacres from mainstream historical memory. Recovering these stories is therefore not merely an act of remembrance; it is an essential step towards documenting the full history of the genocide and ensuring that the experiences of its forgotten Hindu victims are neither ignored nor erased. 

(The writer is an author and columnist)