If you are wondering why I was not blogging last couple of month as frequently as before, I confess now I was engaged in a mammoth project.
It all started after the much discussed denial - Jamaat-e-Islami's leader Ali Ahsan Muzahid's statement that "Jamaat did not work against the Liberation War in 1971 and there are no war criminals in the country." Soon other apologists joined the procession of denials terming the war of liberation as a civil war. Even scholars like Sharmila Bose tried to deny a lot of thing with faulty research.
Some fellow bloggers notably Mashuqur Rahman and Tasneem Khalil stressed that we need a proper archive to tackle these issues. Since I was reading and compiling a list of all available content on liberation war since long, I came forward to gather contents for an archive. I started work in December 2007 and it was a learning experience for me to study and revisit our glorious history of liberation.
I have listed in this archive the International newspaper clippings, events, documentations, audio, video, images, media reports and eyewitness accounts of the 1971 Genocide in Bangladesh all with workable links to judge the truth for yourself. I have compiled views of Pakistanis, Indians, US Government with articles, documents and provided many rare known facts. I am not an historian nor I am here to distort the history. But I hope this archive will help the seekers of truth. For an example you can refute Jamaat's statement from the facts in this page (in Bangla) alone.
As I wrote in the about section of the Bangladesh Genocide Archive:
"The plot is so huge that no one person can tell the story. Many books were written, video footage was taken and words are passed from generation to generation. But due to lack of information in one place and platform many truth were distorted. The struggle for Bangladesh’s liberation and the efforts of the Pakistani army to cull the resistance resulted in one of the worst genocide in the World history. This was interpreted in many different ways. To many Bengalis it was a struggle for liberation, to many Pakistanis a armed rebel to be quashed, to the US govt. Pakistan’s internal affair. However it was in the US the peace loving people arranged the first ever aid concert for the people of Bangladesh.Actually its a repository of all the information available online listed in one place. From here you will be able to navigate to the original contents in their original locations. I will try to include all valid viewpoints with authenticated sources and let the readers/viewers be the judge.
Politicians tried to bank on these in the past and will be doing this in the future. The new generation is baffled as text books were rewritten to instill superiority of the visionaries of the political governments over rivals. People are forgetting that it was a mass effort and prompting to disrespect the catalysts and the father of nation, who was the inspiration.
That is why this site is born."
I personally thank to all these individuals and organizations who have done excellent job over the years but people barely know about their excellent efforts. In different sections of the archive I have listed and collated from their commendable works in one place and linked them accordingly so that people can go to those sites and see the amazing work they have done.
I also thank Mashuqur Rahman, and MMR Jalal for their contents we proudly present here. If MMR Jalal was a website himself no other sites would be required. Ehab did an excellent work on site architect and design (more features coming). Also thanking here fellow bloggers Sushanta, Tasneem, Nazzina, Tanoy, Zafa, Shada Kalo, Rubel, Faiyaz and seniors like Saleem Samad and Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury for their support and encouragement. One disclaimer here is that this is purely a personal effort and I will keep this from any political or organizational alignment.
Let this be a tribute to the victims of the Bangladesh 1971 genocide and all those who fought for the country.
If you haven't bookmarked it yet here is the site: Bangladesh Genocide Archive
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