The Search for the Abdul Ahad/Jamal Family of Shantahar
My classmate, Cadet Arshad Jamal, is one of the few
survivors of the horrific massacre of the Bihari community in Shantahar on
April 17–18, 1971, during the War of Liberation. His father (Abdul Ahad) —
shown seated at the center in the photograph — had passed away three months
before the turmoil engulfed East Pakistan, spared from witnessing the
unspeakable violence that would soon claim so many lives.
Arshad himself — shown standing on the left corner in the
picture — survived only because one of our cadetmates, Ruhul Rabban
(Baten), risked everything to save him. Ruhul Rabban sheltered Arshad and
his immediate younger brother Kokab (not shown in the picture below) for two
months (in his village home, 80 km from Naogaon/Shantahar),
protecting them until in May when Pakistan military sheltered them. He and
Kokab later lived with close relatives in Dhaka before moving to Pakistan.
Arshad’s older brother (Manzar) — standing on the right
corner — also survived the Shantahar tragedy and later settled in Karachi,
where he passed away of natural causes. One of Arshad’s sisters, Tahera
— standing in the middle among her sisters — was in Dhaka during the
Holocaust and survived; she too later died in Karachi. Another older brother,
Zubair Ahmed (sitting next to his father), who was in Dhaka, serving PIA, also
survived.
But the fate of the rest of his family remains shrouded in
uncertainty and grief.
Arshad fears that his mother (Khadija Khatoon) — seated in the photograph — and his two sisters, Shahnaz (about 22 years old at the time, a B.Com student at Eden Girls' College, Dhaka, shown standing next to his brother Manzar) and Sarwarnaz (then 16 years old, shown standing next to him), as well as his youngest brother Nayyer (about 8 years old and not pictured), may have been killed during the violence. Yet he has never been able to confirm what truly happened to them.
For decades, Arshad has been searching — desperately,
tirelessly — for any trace of his lost family in Bangladesh. Their
disappearance remains an open wound, a story unfinished, a grief without
closure.
If you have any information about the Abdul
Ahad/Jamal family of Shantahar — survivors, witnesses, neighbors, or anyone who
may have known them — please contact me. Even the smallest detail may
help bring long‑awaited answers to a man who has carried this burden for more
than half a century.
Thank you.
Habib Siddiqui
(Arshad can be directly contacted at Arshadjamal137@yahoo.com)
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