On 10th Oct. 1946 at about 8 a.m. a Muslim crowd of several thousand men, in batches of about 200 persons armed with deadly weapons passed by our house shouting Muslim League and other slogans such as “Pakistan Zindabad”, “Larke Lenge Pakistan” [sic], “Want Hindu Blood” and “Calcutta Retaliation” and moved towards the ex-MLA’s house. At about 12 a.m. another mob including both outside and local Muslims passed by our house shouting “Want Rai Sahib’s head”, “Sanyasi’s Head” and on their way towards the ex-MLA’s house forcibly tried to drag away one Monoranjan Bose of our house who was taken back by Rai Sahib and others. Immediately we sent one Sailesh Roy of our house to P.S.
Ramganj to lodge an ejahar but to our utter misfortune he could never come back. On the same evening the mob looted and set fire to Sahapur Bazar. On 11 Oct. 1946 at about 10 a.m. a crowd of about 700 Muslims looted and set fire to all the houses of Southern Karpara and then attacked our house with deadly weapons and shouting Muslim League slogans. In the scuffle that ensured in trying to repulse the attack, one Brojonath Das of our house instantaneously [sic] died as a result of an injury caused by a konch thrown by one Monnu Mia of Nakaribari and sometime after that the mob left our house and proceeded towards the house of Golam Sarwar. After about an hour a mob of about eight to ten thousand Muslims led by Sarwar with a gun in hand, proceeded towards our house shouting League slogans, “Sarwar Zindabad”, “Hindur rakta chai” (want Hindu blood), “Rai Sahaber matha chai” (want the head of Rai Sahib), “Sanyasir matha chai” (want the head of sanyasi’s). The numerical strength frightened us a great deal. We, however, organised ourselves in two groups and took shelter in Rajen Babu’s building because the rest were kucha houses (about 100). The aged men including myself (68 years old) women and children took shelter on the roof trying to repulse the attack by throwing brickbats while the young men mostly guarded the building entrance with the only available crude weapons usually meant for home use.
On reaching our house Sarwar gave the lead by opening fire and the mob started wholesale looting and setting fire to all our houses. By about 4 p.m. our defence completely broke down and they set fire to the building by spraying petrol and kerosene oil of which they had an abundant stock….They asked us to come down and talk matters over with Baromiya and Chotomiya (Sarwar and his younger brother), who, they said, had forbidden further killings….One Ledu Shaik, one Rajen Babu’s client and others were persuading us to come down assuring safety on oath of the Koran. At this moment Sarwar ordered his men to go up by ladders and bring everyone down.
THE GOONDAS WERE ALL KNOWN NEIGHBOURS– THERE WERE NO OUTSIDERS
The Goondas (Ledu Shaikh, Shamsul Haque, Abdul Rashid, Khalek, Sikandar, Kala Miya, Muslim Maji, Abdul Kasem, Doctor Abul Hossan Choudhury, etc.) then came up in strength. The ladies were forced to get down. As soon as they got down they were struck and wounded, their ornaments and cash money being snatched away. The scattered men were overpowered, their hands were tied and forced to get down and murdered. Sarwar had declared a special reward for Rajen Babu’s and Sanyasi’s head. As soon as Rajen Babu was forced down, his head was chopped off and a batch ran away with it making a terrific shriek of joy [sic]. 1
SAD END OF KALIPRASANNA RAUT – THE HERO OF KARPARA
WOEFUL PLIGHT OF TWO GIRLS OF CHOWDHURY HOUSE
All other adjacent houses, in the meantime, had been first looted and then burnt. Kali Prasanna Raut tried to escape by jumping into a tank close by, but was discovered, dragged out of the tank at the end of a teta (many-pronged fishing spear with sharp hooks) and killed. The womenfolk were led away to different places, “a crowd in front and a crowd behind” to the accompaniment of taunts, jeers and other unmentionable indignities. Late at night, some of them were brought back and left in a neighbouring badi. Rai Saheb Rajendralal’s wife with some others took refuge in the badi of one of Rajendralal’s Muslim servants, from where they were rescued a week later, on the 18th October, by Abdul Gofran, the Minister of Civil Supplies. Two girls of the family were brought by a gang of ruffians to Shahpur high school, where they were violated. One of them was then taken to Shahpur bazar and murdered. 2
BETRAYAL BY THE PROTECTOR
The other escaped, lost her way and was directed by a kind-hearted Muslim shop-keeper, who was moved to pity by her plight, to Rajbadi in Shahpur, where she took refuge. The hooligans traced her there and demanded her surrender under threats. The poor girl with tears begged her Hindu hosts to give her poison and end her life. But they thrust her out into the pitch-dark night, out of craven fear. The sky was overcast and there was deep mud everywhere. In despair she turned from one to the other of her captors and ultimately invoked protection of one of them, who was a schoolmaster. He reassured her, called her sister, afterwards betrayed her, kept her confined in his house for some days, then moved her from place to place. Finally, she was taken out in a boat into the flooded rice fields and murdered near Khalispara, a village about half a mile from Shahpur Rajbadi, the corpse being thrown into the water. 3
1 Rakesh Batabyal, Communalism in Bengal
2,3 Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi–The Last Phase
Book- 1946 : THE GREAT CALCUTTA KILLINGS AND NOAKHALI GENOCIDE A HISTORICAL STUDY by Dinesh Chandra Sinha and Ashok Dasgupta
