A documentary on Garo women in the war of liberation

To mark the anniversary, a new video by a Muslim filmmaker reconstructs the forgotten story of 15 Christian girls who took part in the conflict with Pakistan in 1971. Tushi Hagidok, now 67: "Love for our country drove us".

Netrokona (AsiaNews) - On 20 December - on the occasion of Victory Day in Bangladesh - a 40-minute documentary entitled Nikmilmal ("shadow") will be presented. It is a documentary about the liberation war and the lives of a group of Garo Christian women who fought for the freedom of the country, hidden from the eyes of the public. The language of the film is Achik, the language of the indigenous Garo people. 

In 1971, the war of liberation from Pakistan lasted nine months with the extremely high toll of 3 million people killed in the conflict. Even the tiny Christian community of Bangladesh had 419 Christian freedom fighters, as attested by government documents.

The director of the documentary, Shariful Islam Palash, is a Muslim journalist. The screenplay was written by Motendro Mankhin, a poet and songwriter from the Christian community in Bangladesh, who is also the husband of Tushi Hagidok, one of these fighters.

Director Shariful Islam Palash tells AsiaNews: 'Nikmilmal is the first documentary in the Achik or Garo language. With this film, I tried to show that, besides the Bengalis, women from the Garo Christian community also contributed to the liberation war, a fact that many people do not know. I produced it with funding from the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact'.

"We have been working on this project for more than three years," the director continues, "It is a story of unknown heroism and we are confident that this film will pave the way for the recognition of these brave women. They had been trained in Meghalaya in India in 1971 and returned to the Netrokona district where they participated in the war as nurses for the wounded and as informers. They were ready to go to the front line but the conflict ended on December 16."

One of the Garo freedom fighters, Tushi Hagidok, a catechist and school teacher now 67, told AsiaNews that the 15 Christian women who participated in the training were all students at the Sacred Heart Catholic missionary school in Baluchora. 'We took part in the war not to gain the admiration or appreciation of others,' she comments, 'but because we love our country and wanted to save it. I am happy that a film has been prepared about us'.