The Haunted Grave: A Freedom Fighter’s Terrifying Encounter

This incident happened with Tahmid bhai's father; he himself was a direct witness and faced the incident. The time was around March-April of 1972, a time immediately after the Liberation War. The incident that led him to face this terrifying experience was related to the Liberation War. He was a supporter of the Liberation War. He wasn't very old during the war, he was young, but he helped the freedom fighters as much as he could. At that time, the Razakar forces (collaborators) would provide information about houses sheltering freedom fighters to Pakistani camps and identify those houses. Based on this information, the Pakistani forces would raid various houses. After the Liberation War, it was seen that these people who were against the war, who took the army to people's houses, and helped them commit murder, rape, and looting in those houses, naturally, people would seek out these bad individuals – which is what was happening. When the freedom fighters returned to their areas and were looking for these Razakars, many engaged in disinformation campaigns. Disinformation is when someone has a small feud with another person and says, "Oh, he was a Razakar." The freedom fighters were away from their areas for a long time, fighting in the war. It was difficult for them to get accurate information at that moment about who belonged to which group during that time. And many mischievous people took advantage of this opportunity. Some were originally involved in the killings, were Razakars – these were already identified. And some people put others in danger by providing false information, for example, saying, "So and so was a Razakar," or "So and so was a robber." At that time, naturally, to maintain law and order in the country, those who risked their lives for their motherland...

So, the country would again be in an unstable state. If those who handed over our people to the Pakistani army created any more unrest, it was a major responsibility of the freedom fighters to find them. But while doing this, it was seen that some people got into trouble due to wrong information. A similar incident happened with this Tahmid bhai's father. Some people gave wrong information, claiming that Tahmid bhai's father was against the liberation war. Naturally, if they received such information, people would come. But at that time, freedom fighters didn't come. A special force was created after the liberation war, around 1972, with the aim of ensuring the overall environment and situation of the country remained stable. So, when they were informed, they said they were coming. So they came, at night, they usually came at night. The reason for coming at night was that people would be sleeping in their homes at that time, so they could be found at home. When that group was coming, they met a man on the way. The man was sitting on the side of the road, smoking a hookah. They asked the man, "Do you know the house of so-and-so?" The man said, "Yes, I do." They asked him why they needed him, but he replied they couldn't tell him and to just show them the house. The man understood that there was definitely some problem. And the person they were talking about, Tahmid bhai's father, wasn't very old. What crime could he have committed that an armed group was coming? So he became worried and also thought that someone might have sent them with wrong information. Now, they can't be blamed either; they came according to the information they received. But he also thought that he shouldn't show them the wrong house with the wrong information, because then his life would be in danger when they found out later. So what did that man do? He started walking a little faster, saying, "Come, come, come this way." Meaning, he was leading them towards the original house. Those who were coming were also going in that direction and the man was leading them.

So, that guy, while taking [him], was walking a bit forward, meaning from a distance, he was calling Tahmid bhai's grandfather, calling him like "Uncle, oh Uncle," something like that. I mean, if he started calling from the house, and it took time to get up, by that time this group would have come to the courtyard of the house. That's why he was calling from a distance, "Uncle, oh Uncle, get up! Get up, get up, guests are coming, get up!" he was saying something like that. Meanwhile, Tahmid bhai's grandfather woke up from this sound. He came out, got up, meaning he came to the courtyard. After coming to the courtyard, that guy quickly walked and came to the courtyard and said, "Uncle, quickly tell your son to get out of the house. People are coming to arrest him." He [the grandfather] was saying, "What arrest? How? What's going on?" He [the guy] said, "There's no time to talk so much. Quickly get him out of the house." So, Tahmid bhai's grandfather did what? He went quickly to the room where Tahmid bhai's father was sleeping, he was in a deep sleep. He pulled him out with a jerk and said, "You quickly go behind the house, there's a canal, cross the canal and go to the other side. There's another house on that side, go to that house and tell them that I sent you." Now, Tahmid's father, being in a deep sleep and startled by this jerk, being pulled outside, and being told to cross the canal and leave, he wasn't understanding anything. So he was asking, "What happened? What happened?" He [the grandfather] said, "There's no time to talk, quickly run!" So, he also went towards the canal behind the house. At that time, that group came and entered. And at that time, Tahmid bhai's grandmother, she also had a lamp, or rather a kerosene lamp, she also came out with it and said, "What happened, father? Who are you? Why have you come here?" Then they were saying, "We have information that your son is involved in various kinds of misdeeds."

They were saying, "It seems someone gave you wrong information." So, there was quite a discussion going on with them, and they were being kept busy so that Tahmid's father could quickly cross the canal. Once he crossed over, there was no way to catch him at that time. Over here, what happened was, Tahmid's father, he had already swum across the canal. It wasn't like the canal was that big; he just swam across. Firstly, he was in a deep sleep, and then suddenly he had to start swimming. After reaching the other side, he became very tired. Exhausted, he fell asleep near a palm tree there. And on the other side, those who had come to Tahmid's grandfather's house, they talked for a while and then took their leave, realizing that he wasn't at home and that this boy wasn't really guilty. So, they were going back the way they came. Meanwhile, Tahmid's father, what was he doing? He had gone to sleep leaning against the base of that palm tree.

And a little distance from that palm tree – not very far, but a little ways away – there was a small hut made of straw. The farmers who did agricultural work, when they brought food from home, they would keep the food inside that hut most of the time, because if they kept the food on the bank of the field, the intense sun would spoil the vegetables and rice. So, they had built such a hut for themselves. Nobody actually lived in the hut. About a week ago, a girl named Joyton supposedly saw something on the bamboo support, on top of that hut or lean-to. In a typical hut made of straw, there's a bamboo beam for support in the middle.

So, she committed suicide by hanging herself from it, but the reason for her suicide, Tahmin Bhai's grandmother couldn't tell Tamim Bhai for sure. Maybe there was some family feud. Joyton was around 16 or 17 years old, something like that. After Joyton committed suicide there, many people said to burn the house down, saying no one actually lives in it. We built it, but still, no one burned it down, it remained like that. So, Tahmid Bhai's father, well, he was leaning against the base of the palm tree and fell asleep. He can't really say how long he slept. Suddenly, he felt something very cold on his shoulder. It felt like a hand placed on it, like the sensation you get when five human fingers, very cold, touch your shoulder, something like that. When he felt this, he woke up. He was in a very deep sleep, or maybe just dozing off. He looked behind him, and at that time the moonlight was quite good. He looked back and saw, "Who's that? It's Joyton, who died just a week ago." And Joyton was looking at him and laughing gleefully. Even when alive, Joyton's teeth were quite large and protruding. There are some people like that, right, with protruding teeth, so when they talk or smile, their teeth stick out. Joyton's teeth were like that. And Joyton was laughing hideously, gleefully, and his eyes looked like they were burning. As soon as he saw this, he got extremely scared. He shouted "Oh mother!" a really loud scream. With this scream, he took off running, running towards the house in the field, the house his father had told him about.

The shouting coming from that house and in this direction, this brother's grandmother heard it. After hearing it, she thought perhaps someone else had caught her son, caught and killed him, that's why this noise was happening. She then shouted out, "Oh no, my son is done for!" She then gave another shout from this direction. Tahmid's father, he ran to that house while shouting. Because he went there shouting, the people in that house also woke up. He came and collapsed in the courtyard. The people in that house got worried. They asked him, "What happened, father?" He said, "My father told me to come to your house. In the meantime, I got scared." Then they quickly took him inside the house and gave him the usual treatment that's done in villages. When he became a little normal, he asked what had happened. The next day he went back to his house. That was the incident.

The person this story is about is a freedom fighter named Asad. This heroic freedom fighter, Asad, was working somewhere in Barisal during the great Liberation War of 1971. When the Pakistani military attacked Barisal, he joined the liberation war. He received training at a camp in a place called Babuganj in Barisal. After initial training, he left with a group. Anyway, that group set up camp quite far away. One night, some of them were asleep, and some were awake, standing guard. He happened to be awake at that time, guarding the camp. Suddenly, he needed to use the washroom. Actually, the situation there wasn't conducive to building a proper washroom or anything. So, he had to relieve himself in the open, out of sheer necessity. He went to a jungle near the camp. He sat down to relieve himself when he suddenly heard a rustling sound nearby. There was moonlight. He wondered where the rustling sound was coming from. He thought perhaps it was coming from a bush nearby, maybe a jackal, a dog, or a wild cat was coming out. Or maybe even a monitor lizard. He had a fear in his mind. However, there was quite good moonlight. He saw that the rustling sound wasn't actually coming from around him; it seemed to be coming from above. When he looked up, he saw an old tree right next to him. Something was coming down the tree upside down, like a gecko, with its head pointing downwards. But whatever it was that was coming down upside down, the way a gecko comes down using its hands and feet, it had long hair, and because it was upside down, its hair was hanging down.

Because her head was facing down, her hair was hanging forward, and it was clear this was a female figure coming down upside down. As it came down, in a very short time, this incident happened. Immediately after coming down, she went straight to this freedom fighter, this Asad Uncle, and looked at him. Even though her hair was disheveled, her eyes weren't really visible; it seemed like she didn't have any eyes. She just had a face. And in this situation, he really didn't know what to do. In the moonlight, he saw that the woman's head was cracked, and blood was dripping from her head. The clothes she was wearing were torn, and there was blood on them. Her hair was already disheveled. What the woman did was extend one hand forward and reach out to grab this freedom fighter, Asad Uncle. And then this Asad Uncle took off running because as soon as he sat down in that place, this problem started. So he took off running. He ran for a while and looked back and saw another terrifying thing. He saw several large creatures running towards him. It wasn't clear what kind of creatures they were. Seeing this, he ran even faster in fear. He hit a tree or something like that very hard and lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, it wasn't like he was the only one on duty. Before he left, he told his comrade that he was going to a nearby place to relieve himself. But he was taking a long time to come back, and someone being late meant they were in trouble because there were enemies all around. He then woke up another person from the camp and said, "Hey, wake up! We can't find him. He left a long time ago and isn't coming back."Back then, there was also the menace of snakes. There was the question of whether he had been bitten by one. So, those two went looking for him. They couldn't find him anywhere nearby. Then they woke up the other comrades, telling them about the situation. They all got up, and together they started searching. After searching for quite some time, they found him unconscious a little way away from the jungle. It turned out his body had red marks all over. His condition wasn't good at all. They were unsure what to do. Very carefully, they sent him back to his village the next day because there was no way to get him medical treatment there; war was going on, after all. He never really recovered. In the meantime, the war ended, and after the war ended, when his comrades came to inquire about him, they learned something tragic that they hadn't fully known at the beginning. Initially, they knew some things, especially about the frightening incident, that much they knew. They didn't know what happened after that, what they found out was that, basically, this freedom fighter, Asad Uncle, the place where he was sitting that night was a grave. And this grave wasn't just any ordinary person's grave; it was the grave of a woman who practiced black magic. This woman used to practice black magic and harm people; she never did anything good. At one point, the villagers became enraged and beat her to death, especially hitting her on the head, splitting her head in two. People were so angry because she only practiced black magic, incantations, and didn't follow any religion, even though the woman was Muslim.

But he didn't actually follow any religion, so what rules should be used for his funeral rites or burial? People didn't know what to do, so they dug a hole there in the jungle and buried him. After that, whoever went to that jungle at night, most of the time people were scared. Many died of fear, afraid to even speak of it. Some died after returning home. And those who survived would develop red marks on their bodies, and no treatment could cure it. Once these red marks appeared on someone's body, they would start spreading from that area, and eventually, the person would die. Freedom fighter Asad Uncle died in this way. And even though he wasn't directly martyred in battle, he was still in the field fighting. Whether he died of fear while in the field or not, he wasn't at home at that time; he was in the battlefield. So, it's not always the case that people die from bullets.

People can die from various other reasons as well. But you have to see what purpose they were out for at that time. Freedom fighter Asad Uncle is one such person who, although he didn't die directly in the battlefield, he died in the war zone. His death may not have been due to a bullet or enemy attack, but he is still one of our martyred freedom fighters. There are probably countless stories of such freedom fighters that we don't know. We will gradually learn about many such stories, Inshallah. Dear listeners, from the elders in your homes, [you can hear] stories of that time.