As promiced... here is the story of Purnima, Sheel. When I sang the song at a Bangladeshi gathering, everyone said - right off that it should be dedicated to Purnima, and as I read the story, it is odd that there are things she said, that I already put in the song, for example, how can I show my face to you?
Larry Report from SAMBAD, Dhaka, Karthik 15 (bengali calender), Tuesday, Oct 30, 2001:
20 October, 2001. A local hotel in the city. A press conference has been arranged by the Ghatak-Dalal-Nirmul Committee. Silence is prevailing among all the attendees. Purnima and her mother Basana Rani of Deula village of Ullapara, Sirajganj are also there, looking towards some undefined territory. Purnima is yet to be matured. Signs of lovely childhood still exits on her face. However, this innocent girl has been abducted and gang raped by barbaric BNP activists. They physically assaulted her mother while she tried to save her daughter. All became speechless on that day's press conference. "How shall I show my face to others", lamented Purnima covering her face from the journalist's camera. None was able to say anything but to shed tear. "Ma (Mother), we shall not worship Durga this year, we shall worship you instead" said engineer Sadhan Das giving his saved money for the Durga Puja to this girl. "The courage that you have shown should made all of us worship you" he added.
Rape, Torture and Minority Women: Only Purnima, Basanti of Satkhira or Lakshmi of Daganbhunga is not the only victim of such atrocities, numerous women of minority community have become victims. BNP, Jamayat-Shibir gang and Islamic fundamentalist groups have started such inhuman activities after the country's general poll. Support from the government and downright falsehood of the home minister to support the perpetrators are adding momentum to these outrages incidents. They are raping girls in front of the mother, burning the houses, looting the households. These perpetrators are intruding the minority properties in villages after villages and making them homeless. Shops, business places, livestock, everything is looted. They are forcibly taking signatures on legal documents of homesteads and killing anyone protesting their brutal acts. To fulfill their perverted sexual desire they are molesting women starting from minors to seniors. As if these homicidal animals are playing the final part of the defeated game of 1971 and destroying the harmony and creating a bloody clash thereby.
Few Snap Shots of Numerous Atrocities:
ONE: Nahata village of Sripur Upazilla in Magura District. Known terrorists attacked on ten minority families suddenly. They burnt houses, looted households and tortured the family members. Then they took away one college going and two school going girls and gang raped them in an adjacent house.
TWO: The wife, daughter and sister of Pabitra Kumar Mistri, living in Bazar-Char, an outskirt of Barishal town could not manage to escape from these fierce animals. Pabitra kumar trades on Hogla Pata. Fearing attacks from the BNP activists, he sent his daughter to a relative's house in the town. One day local terrorist Fazlu abducted Pabitra in a camp. Then they abducted his daughter, breaking the door of the house where she was in and raped his wife & daughter whole night in the same house. The brutality of Fazlu will defame the middle age barbarism.
THREE: A young school student of village East Jeluya, Ullapara, Sirajganj did not also manage to survive from the barbaric attackers. For supporting opposition party Awamy League, local BNP and Chhatradal activists abducted this young girl and took her to a shop in Hatkhola, East Deluya. There they gang raped the girl. Getting a wind of what is going on, nearby people rescued the girl but police did not arrest any perpetrators.