By Sujit Chakraborty, IANS
Agartala : India handed over the remains of Bangladeshi war hero Hamidur Rahman Sunday to Dhaka, 36 years after he was buried in Tripura.
Rahman was buried in Tripura’s bordering Hatimarachara village in Dhalai district, 125 km north of state capital Agartala, after he died fighting Pakistani forces in the nearby Maulavi Bazar district of the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, on Oct 28, 1971.
Senior Indian officials and leaders in the presence of thousands of people handed over the coffin containing the remains of Rahman to a high-level Bangladeshi delegation at Hatimarachara when the troops of Indian Army gave a formal guard of honour to the war hero.
Rahman is one of the seven warriors who were posthumously conferred the Bir Shreshtha (greatest hero), Bangladesh’s highest gallantry award, for their role in the country’s 1971 war of independence.
A seven-member Bangladeshi delegation, led by Mohammad Humayun Kabir Khan, joint secretary in Bangladesh’s liberation war affairs ministry, arrived here Friday to take back Rahman’s remains.
The coffin would be taken by road to Comilla through the Birbazar post on the India-Bangladesh border Monday and then to Dhaka.
“The coffin would be ceremonially received by Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed at the National Parade Ground at Tezgaon Tuesday and would be reburied at the graveyard reserved for freedom fighters at Mirpur on the outskirts of Dhaka,” said Lt. Col. (retd) Sajjad Ali Zahir, spokesman of the Bangladeshi delegation.
Before the departure of the Bangladesh delegation, another honourable send-off ceremony would take place here Monday.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, among others, would pay respect to the war hero in the ceremony.
On Oct 28, 1971, Rahman, on the order of his company commander, single-handedly launched an attack on a base camp of Pakistan’s 39th Frontier Force near Paharmura, about 145 km from here. Rahman had just two hand grenades – still, he demolished two enemy machine-gun posts before being killed after crawling over 500 meters.
Rahman – a sepoy (soldier) of the then 1st East Bengal regiment of the Mukti Bahini (liberation force) – died at the age of 17 years and four months to become the youngest Bir Shreshtha.
“After that, about a hundred soldiers of the first Bengal regiment were either killed or injured while trying to capture the Pakistani army base,” Ali Zahir told IANS.
“Rahman’s body was brought to Hatimarachara, 40 km inside India, by one Rehaman Mian and given a proper Muslim burial,” he added.
The Bangladesh government, freedom fighters and family members of the martyrs had earlier urged New Delhi to allow the remains of the dead soldier to be brought back to their country.
“We are taking back the remains of Rahman ahead of the 37th Bijoy Dibas (victory day) celebration of the Bangladesh liberation war Dec 16,” Zahir said.
Zahir was a second lieutenant of the Pakistani Army and deserted his post adjoining the Indian border in Kashmir before participating in the Bangladesh liberation war.
Last year, Bangladesh took back the remains of another gallantry award recipient, Flt. Lt. Motiur Rahman, from Pakistan. He was reburied at the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur in Dhaka with full state honours.
Motiur took off on a T-33 aircraft from a West Pakistan airbase to flee to India and join Bangladesh’s war of liberation in the early stage of the 1971 war. He was killed when his jet crashed near the India-Pakistan border.
The Bangladesh liberation forces supported by the Indian Army had set up hundreds of base camps along the India-East Pakistan border with Tripura.
“We are sincerely grateful to the Indian and Tripura governments and its people for providing shelter to two million Bangladeshi refugees during the liberation war,” Zahir said.