In Tarapur village of Bahadurpur Union, Pangsha Upazila, Rajbari district, unidentified miscreants set fire to the enclosed section of a graveyard containing the graves of five 1971 Liberation War freedom fighters. The arson targeted the bamboo boundary wall that had been erected to protect the martyrsโ resting place.
The incident took place in the early hours of Sunday, December 7, 2025. Locals allege that the attackers poured kerosene over the bamboo fencing and set it ablaze. Worshippers heading to the nearby Tarapur Jame Mosque for Fajr prayer first noticed the flames and raised the alarm through the mosque loudspeaker. Residents and students from a nearby madrasa rushed to the spot and managed to extinguish the fire.
The strong smell of kerosene and petrol still lingered at the scene when police and the Upazila Nirbahi Officer arrived later in the morning.
Unprecedented: Extremists dig out corpse of Nural Pagol, burn it on the highway
Mob Attacks Shrine With Police Help: Pir Azizur Rahman Bhandari forgives perpetrators
October Revolt: Jamaat-ISI final actions to assassinate General Waker, arrest dozens
The graveyard, established in 1946 and spread over more than three acres, had reserved a separate four-decimal plot in 2022 exclusively for freedom fighters. Five local freedom fighters have been buried there so far. Caretaker of the graveyard and mosque muezzin Shahidul Islam insisted the fire was deliberate, pointing out that the cemetery has no electricity connection or any other potential ignition source nearby.
Local freedom fighters and residents have condemned the act as a planned attack by โanti-liberation forcesโ who reject the spirit of 1971. Retired teacher and freedom fighter Shamsher Ali said it felt as if the โdefeated forces of 1971โ had returned. Another veteran, Nazrul Islam Khan Jahangir, warned that failure to punish the culprits would endanger the very legacy of the Liberation War in the eyes of future generations. Union Parishad Chairman Sajeeb Hossain called it โthe most despicable act imaginableโ and confirmed that a police case is being filed.
The Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Rifatul Haq, visited the site and confirmed that the fire appeared to have been set deliberately. A formal investigation is underway.
Similar Incidents Since August 2024
Since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, 2024, Bangladesh has seen a sharp rise in targeted attacks on symbols of the 1971 Liberation War, the memory of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and living or deceased freedom fighters. These acts range from vandalism and arson to systematic efforts to erase or rewrite the history of the independence struggle.
Extremist groups, often operating under the banner of “Touhidi Janata”โa coalition of radical Islamist parties like Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Hefazat-e-Islam, and militant outfits such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and Jamaโatul Mujahideen Bangladeshโhave been implicated in many cases, with little accountability from authorities.
The desecration of graves has emerged as a particularly gruesome tactic, symbolising not just hatred toward perceived “un-Islamic” or pro-liberation figures but also a broader assault on Bangladesh’s secular, Sufi-influenced cultural heritage, which played a key role in the 1971 nationalist movement. Over 105 Sufi shrines and graves have been destroyed or vandalised since August 2024, often alongside attacks on war-era sites. The interim government’s “zero tolerance” policy has yielded only 23 arrests, fueling fears of state complicity or inaction.
Awami League remembers Indiaโs recognition of Bangladesh in 1971
Hindu freedom fighter, his wife found slaughtered at Rangpur home
Radical Islamists renew threat against secularism, Bengali nationalism
One of the most shocking incidents unfolded in Rajbari district itself, just three months prior to the freedom fighters’ graves arson. On September 5, 2025, a mob of over 200 extremists identifying as Touhidi Janata stormed the Darbar Sharif and the grave of Nurul Haque Molla, known as Nural Pagol, a controversial Sufi figure who had died on August 23, 2025, at age 80. Nural Pagol, who in the late 1980s claimed to be the Imam Mahdi and built a shrine in Ward No. 5 of Goalanda Municipality, was buried in a raised, Kaaba-painted structure inside his compoundโa practice locals deemed “un-Islamic.” After failed negotiations with authorities, including the district administrator and police superintendent, the mob rallied post-Friday prayers at Goalanda Ansar Club ground.
They vandalised the shrine, set the residence ablaze, and exhumed Nural Pagol’s body from its grave. Amid clashes that injured over 100 and killed 28-year-old devotee Rasel Molla, the attackers paraded the coffin on the Dhaka-Khulna highway at Padma intersection, beating the corpse with sticks while chanting “Naraye Taqbir.” They then doused it with kerosene and petrol and burned it publicly. Police stood by largely inactive, suffering minor injuries only after intervening late; six officers were hurt, and two vehicles were damaged.
Instigators included Maulana Jalal Uddin Pramanik of the Iman-Aqeedah Rokkha Committee, BNP leader Ayub Ali Khan, Jamaat’s Nurul Islam, and local BNP officials Abul Kashem Mondal and Amjad Hossain. The interim government condemned the act as “inhuman and despicable,” but no prosecutions followed, echoing a pattern where advisers defend such mobs as “pressure groups.”
Similar grave burnings underscore the escalating targeting of figures tied to 1971’s pluralistic ethos. On September 17, 2024, in Boalkhali Upazila, Chittagong, the grave of Mayeen Uddin Khan Badalโa valiant 1971 freedom fighter, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) executive president, and former MP for Chittagong-8โwas vandalised and set ablaze around 3pm in his family cemetery at West Saroatali.
Badal, who died on November 7, 2019, in Bangalore while undergoing treatment, had actively prevented arms offloading at Chittagong port during the war. Unidentified miscreants targeted his tomb, with his wife Selina Khan alleging political retribution against his pro-liberation stance and lack of corruption. Boalkhali police OC Golam Sarwar confirmed vandalism signs but made no arrests. Badal’s legacy as a Chhatra League veteran and anti-fascist voice made him a symbol of the very nationalism now under siege.
In Sirajganj, Touhidi Janata’s brutality peaked earlier: last year (2024), they demolished three graves at Gausul Azam Darbar Sharif, a historic Sufi complex, exhumed the bonesโincluding those of a revered, unnamed Sufi saintโand burned them publicly while looting “un-Islamic” valuables. This attack, part of a wave hitting shrines in Kazipur Upazila (e.g., Ali Pagla’s on August 29, 2024), displaced devotees and erased sites that embodied the tolerant, syncretic Islam central to 1971’s Bengali resistance against Pakistani forces.
Immediately after August 5, 2024, mobs across the country toppled, beheaded, and burned dozens of statues of Sheikh Mujibur Rahmanโthe universally recognised Father of the Nationโin Dhaka, Pabna, Chuadanga, Rangpur, and many other places. The Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32 was set ablaze, and several Liberation War memorials, including parts of the historic Mujibnagar Complex, were damaged or desecrated during the same wave of violence. Adjacent freedom fighter graves were disturbed in some cases.
In the weeks and months that followed, numerous shrines and graves associated with the secular, pro-liberation narrative came under attack, particularly those linked to Sufi traditions or minority communities that had strongly supported the 1971 war. Graves were vandalised in Gulistan (Dhaka), Sonargaon and Bandar (Narayanganj), Kazipur (Sirajganj), and Ranishankail (Thakurgaon), often alongside broader anti-Hindu violence that saw temples burned and homes looted. Over 157 Hindu sites were hit, with indirect impacts on war-era minority graves.
Living freedom fighters have also faced public humiliation, forced resignations, and assaults on their homes and property. In several rural areas, muktijoddhas have reported receiving threats that their graves, too, could meet the same fate as those in Rajbari.
Since August 5, 2024, mobs organised a so-called โBulldozer Marchโ to Dhanmondi 32, vandalising the interior of the Bangabandhu residence-turned-museum once again and destroying a newly restored mural while chanting slogans branding the site a โshrine of fascism.โ
At the policy level, portraits of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman have been removed from government offices, banks, and currency notes under consideration. National holidays linked to his historic speeches have been scrapped, and school textbooks have been hastily revised to downplay or omit his role in declaring independence, instead crediting military ruler Ziaur Rahman. Critics, including the Awami League and many senior freedom fighters, describe this as a systematic attempt to erase the true history of 1971 and rehabilitate the image of collaborationist forces that opposed independence.
The arson attack on the freedom fightersโ graves in Rajbari on December 7, 2025โcoming mere months after the Nural Pagol horror in the same districtโis widely seen as the latest and one of the most shocking manifestations of this ongoing campaign of hatred and historical distortion that began intensifying after August 2024.
English 
Bengali