Barisal Massacre 1950 [Barisal, Bangladesh]

[REPORTED AS SEEN]

In Barisal, riots started on 13 February. Hindus were killed, raped and abducted indiscriminately. According to the press note of the Government of East Bengal, two unidentified youths began to spread provocative rumours on the afternoon of 13 February in the town of Barisal. As a result, many of the shops in the market closed down. Another rumour was spread that Fazlul Haque had been murdered in Kolkata. At nightfall, eight places were set on fire. 30 houses and shops were reduced to ashes, and ten persons were severely burnt. The situation further deteriorated after 16 February when indiscriminate loot and arson of Hindu properties started in Gournadi, Jhalakati and Nalchiti under Sadar sub-division of Barisal district. The Hindu passengers on the water route between Barisal and Dhaka were killed within the steamer and thrown in the river.

In the river port of Muladi in Barisal district, several hundred Hindus took shelter in the police station after their homes were torched. They were later attacked within the police station compound, and most of them were killed within the precincts of the police station. A Hindu school teacher was roasted alive by his Muslim students, who danced around the fire. In the village of Madhabpasha, under Babugunge police station presently Babuganj Upazila, two to three hundred Hindus were rounded up by a Muslim mob. They were made to squat in a row, and their heads were chopped off one by one with a ramda. In the Madhabpasha Zamindar house, 200 Hindus were killed and 40 injured.

Ilsaghat is a steamer station on the Meghna, on the island of Bhola, 7 miles from Bhola town. It falls on the steamer route between Barisal and Chittagong. On 16 February 1950, the S.S.Sitakunda of the Royal Steam Navigation Company anchored at Ilsaghat on her way to Chittagong. At Ilsaghat, several Hindu passengers from S.S. We’ve Gone boarded S.S.Sitakunda due to atrocities perpetrated on them by the crew. Around 8 P.M. that night, hundreds of Muslims attacked S.S.Sitakunda while still anchored at the steamer station. They massacred the unarmed Hindu passengers and threw them into the river. 30 Hindus were killed in the massacre, while three survived.

According to contemporary Muslim eyewitnesses a few thousand Hindus were killed and about two thousand Hindus went missing from Barisal district alone. Researcher Subhasri Ghosh has put the number of Bengali Hindus killed in Barisal District at around 2,500. Documentary filmmaker Supriyo Sen estimated that as many as 650,000 Hindus attempted to flee from Barisal to India and on their way were looted, killed and abducted.