Headlines have a way of dehumanising victims. Take, for example, the article published on October 2, 1977 in the New York Times. It reads, "Junior officers tried to overthrow the military Government...but the authorities reported that the uprising had been crushed."

Nobody will tell you just how apt the use of the word "crushed" is, but it's possible to steal a glance through the pages of Anisul Hoque's Ayeshamangal, recently translated into English by well-known Bangladeshi reporter Inam Ahmed, titled, The Ballad of Ayesha (Harper Perennial).