The two brothers bought a house with a high hope at 19 Rajab Ali Chowdhury Lane in Kushtia town and started living there with their family members.
The two brothers in fact set up their business with an oven inside the house and started to sell bread and biscuits to the local people.
The entire family was very popular in the locality because of their humble and gentle behaviour. The business of the two brothers was thriving along with their goodwill and family reputation.
At the beginning of War of Liberation in 1971, curfew was imposed in the town at night. But the two brothers knew that a group of Freedom Fighters had taken position at Chhoto Wireless area of Arua Para.
At the dead of every night, the brothers used to take food from their bakery for the Freedom Fighters to a place where they were hiding. Some times they used to send their bakery employee Asad with the food.
Arshad's and Rabiul's supports to the Freedom Fighters enraged the Biharis, living in the neighbourhood, who planned to kill the entire family whenever they would get the first chance.
At the onset of the War of Liberation, the town took a deserted look as most of the inhabitants fled the areas. Agents of the occupation force took this opportunity to go for vandalism in the town, looting people's deserted houses and carrying out torture on those who continued to live in the town at that time.
When the inhuman atrocities were on, Rabiul's and Arshad's families left Kushtia town and started to live in Kamalpur Upazila with one of their relatives.
But the Biharis with their killing plot in mind wanted to bring back the families and kill them. With their evil design in mind, they went to Kamalpur and requested Arshad and Rabiul to come back to the town and assured them of security.
The families believing the plotters without any hesitation came back to Kushtia town on September 18, 1971. Hearing news about their return, two more guests also came to stay with the families at Kohinoor Villa.
The family was a bit relaxed after coming back to their own place and at 10:30pm, they went for sleep after family gossiping. And at that time, the terror descended on the innocent people.
At the dead of night, the Bhiharis crashed the main doors of the Kohinoor Villa and entered into the house with lethal weapons in their hands shrouding their faces with red scurf.
"The bandits stormed all the rooms of the Khohinoor Villa and took all the members to a room in the backside of the Villa," said Abdul Kader, who was an eyewitness to the gruesome murders.
The hooligans then dug up holes in the vearanda of the Villa to construct makeshift earthen stoves, arranged for cooking a big feast and started playing songs loudly to create an atmosphere of picnic.
The whole atmosphere created a decoy so that nobody would have the hint of an incident of gruesome killing to take place in a few moments.
The hated butchers took drugs heavily and then went to the room where the inmates of the Kohinoor Villa were kept. They dragged out two young women and pushed them into another room, where the doors and windows were closed.
Soon they started indescribable torture on the women and then slaughtered them together. The savages then took the male members out of the room and chopped off their heads.
They also killed children by bayonet charge and then slit the abdomens of two pregnant women, took out their babies from the womb and killed those along with their mothers.
The eyewitness said the killers at the veranda quite merrily had their dinner that was cooked in the makeshift stoves and left Kohinoor Villa.
After 38 years of the atrocities, Kohinoor Villa still stands silent bearing the horrifying experience of that dreadful night. The Biharis killed 16 of the family members who were later buried in a mass grave behind Kohinoor Villa.
The Kohinoor Villa was not maintained as it ought to be and it was now in a dilapidated condition while the mass grave collapsed at many places. However, there is a signboard in front of Kohinoor Villa with a monogram of Freedom Fighters and names of the Shaheeds.
Those who were killed by the savages are Rabiul Huq, his first and second wives, son Abdul Hannan, Mannan, brother Arshadul Huq and his wife, their daughters Anu and Afroza and son Ashraf, relative Razia Begum and guest Mohammad Rezaul and shopkeeper Asad, Batasi and Jarina.
Source: thefinancialexpress-bd.com
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