A number of people, including freedom fighters, who had embraced martyrdom at the hands of Pakistani occupation forces and their local collaborators during the Liberation War, were buried in Shamshernagar area under Kamalganj upazila of the district.

Due to lack of maintenance, the monument stand and memorial built at the mass grave has turned into an abandoned place while others are about to be obliterated, said local freedom fighters.

According to a decision at Kamalganj upazila parishad coordination meeting, local union parishad (UP) chairman will maintain the memorial monument and the memorial pillar but it is utterly neglected, said freedom fighter Sajjadur Rahman, sub-commander, Kamalpur sub-sector, sector 4 of the Liberation War.              

Since the historic speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7 in 1971, residents of Shamshernagar used to carry out rallies against the Pakistani regime every day that angered head of local Muslim League leader Arif Munshi and Pakistani army officers who stayed in the district town.

The occupation forces then killed magician Sirajul Islam, 80, on March 27 in Shamshernagar. At that time, local people got upset. The following day, the freedom fighters killed nine members of the occupation forces, including Captain Golam Rasul, in a planned operation in Shamshernagar.

After the incident, the Pakistani troops set up camp in Dakbanglow area and since then they tortured locals and shot dead many people in the northwest corner of the runway in Shamshernagar Airport. Besides, many freedom fighters were killed in the area during the nine months of Liberation War.

During a recent visit to the area, this correspondent found the entire memorial and monument stand covered with bushes. The entrance is covered by bamboo weeds.

On August 18 in 2008, the then finance and planning minister M Saifur Rahman inaugurated the memorial. Later, the Public Works Department built the memorial and monument stand in 2012-13 fiscal year.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mohammad Mahmudul Haque said instructions have been given to the chairman of Shamshernagar Union Parishad on maintenance of the mass killing site.

UP Chairman Jewel Ahmed said the mass killing site is cleaned before March 26 and December 16 every year.