Richard AmmonChittigong city is Bangladesh’s second largest metropolis with about four million people. For tourists there are only a few sights such as the War Cemetery, the Zia Museum, Shahi Jama-e mosque and a market. Not mentioned in guidebooks is the huge and haunting ship-breaking yard just north of the city. Photos 2-5 below reveal a harsh realm of labor and danger as giant ships are torn apart piece by piece. For more photos of this daunting place see the photo gallery titled Bangladesh: Chittigong Yard on this site. (Ship Breaking Yard)
Photos 31-33 are of the Zia Mansion and Museum where the ‘founder’ of Bangladesh, President/General Zia Rahman was assassinated in 1981 (he took office in 1971). No photos are allowed inside so there is no picture here of the grim display that still contains the bloodied carpet where the President fell, although the bulllet holes are still visible in the marble floor.
The Chittagong (World War II) Cemetery (photos 13-30) is a manicured and peaceful place–a relief from the city’s raucous streets–that contains several hundred graves of soldiers, most in their young twenties, who served in the United Kingdom military. The markers here reveal soldiers from a variety of countries–West Africa. Canada, South Africa, India, Britain and one American-born soldier. Their deaths are remembered in the freedom from tyranny that most Southeast Asian countries enjoy today.
