The remains of 23 out of 24 Japanese soldiers have been exhumed from the Mainamati War Cemetery in Comilla, 81 years after World War II. No remains were found in the grave of the remaining soldier.

The excavation work officially ended on Friday (November 22), and authorities announced that the remains would soon be handed over to Japan. The excavation began on November 13 to search for the remains of the soldiers.

Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Kazi Sajjad Ali Zahir, Bir Protik, who assisted the Japanese forensic team, confirmed this information to Jago News on Saturday (November 23).

Kazi Sajjad Ali Zahir said, “Even after 81 years, we have found some remains of skeletons, skulls and various body parts of soldiers. The whole team had to work tirelessly for this. Each grave was carefully excavated, sometimes using equipment and other times. Although there are records in other countries of excavating 60-65 year old graves, I believe this is the first time that remains have been recovered after such a long period.

“However, nothing was found in a single grave. It is assumed that the soldier buried there was very young. From the evidence collected from the graves of 23 soldiers, we hope that the Japanese forensic team will get positive results in their laboratory. The forensic scientist Japanese The team is also optimistic,” he added.

The Mainamati War Cemetery in Comilla is the final resting place of 737 soldiers who died during the Second World War between 1941 and 1945. Of these, 172 were Muslims, 24 Buddhists, 2 Hindus and the rest Christians.

The cemetery contains the graves of soldiers from 13 countries: 357 from the United Kingdom, 12 from Canada, 12 from Australia, 4 from New Zealand, 171 from undivided India, 3 from Rhodesia, 56 from East Africa, 86 from West Africa, 1 from Belgium , 24 from Japan and 1 each from Myanmar, South Africa and Poland.