Qualla: Burunga Massacre

Burunga Massacre: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the afternoon of May 25, 1971, drums beat through the villages around Burunga in Sylhet District. The message they carried sounded hopeful: come to the Burunga High School grounds tomorrow morning, where a peace committee will be formed and peace cards distributed. The Pakistani army had arrived, and local union chairman Injad Ali had met with them. In a region already gripped by the violence of the Bangladesh Liberation War, the promise of peace cards, documents that might offer some protection, was enough to draw more than a thousand people to the school grounds the next day. What awaited them was not peace but a carefully planned massacre.

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Burunga Massacre: The Sorting

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By 8 a.m. on May 26, villagers from Burunga and surrounding settlements had gathered at the high school. At around 9 a.m., collaborators Abdul Ahad Chowdhury and Dr. Abdul Khaleque arrived in a jeep alongside a Pakistani army contingent led by Captain Nur Uddin. They checked the ...

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Burunga Massacre: Escape Through a Window

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Inside the office room, some captives began to cry. Among them was Srinibas Chakraborty, who managed to force open a window. Priti Ranjan Chowdhury, the headmaster of Burunga High School, and Ranu Malakar, a young Hindu man, leaped through the opening. The Pakistani soldiers open...

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Burunga Massacre: Noon on the School Grounds

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At about noon, the Hindu captives were brought outside and arranged in three columns of roughly ninety people. On Captain Nur Uddin's command, soldiers opened fire with three light machine guns. The killing was systematic and swift. Afterward, the soldiers poured kerosene over th...

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Burunga Massacre: Counting the Dead

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

There is no consensus on the exact number killed. Estimates range from 71 to 94. Survivor Srinibas Chakraborty maintained that 94 people died, but the generally accepted figure is 78 Hindu men and boys. The Burunga massacre was one of many targeted killings of the Hindu populatio...

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Burunga Massacre: A Wall and a Memory

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1984, thirteen years after the massacre, the government of Bangladesh enclosed the mass killing site with a brick wall. Later, a memorial was erected for the victims. The Burunga High School still stands, its grounds now carrying a weight that no school should bear. The memori...

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