By Sujit Chakraborty, IANS
Agartala : India Monday gave an emotional send-off to Bangladesh war hero Hamidur Rahman, whose mortal remains were taken from Tripura to Dhaka.
A seven member Bangladesh government delegation led by Mohammad Humayun Kabir Khan, joint secretary in Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war affairs ministry, took Rahman’s remains home.
Senior Indian officials and leaders in the presence of thousands of people Sunday handed over the coffin containing the remains of Rahman to Bangladeshi delegation at Hatimarachara village in Dhalai district, 125 km north of state capital Agartala. The Indian Army gave a formal guard of honour to the war hero.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar paid his respect Monday to the war hero in a brief ceremony held here before the Bangladeshi delegation left for Dhaka by road.
The emotionally charged ceremony was held amidst chanting of slogans “India-Bangladesh friendship long live”.
Bangladesh army official Maj. Gen. Hafiz Uddin, GOC Comilla division, formally received the coffin.
The young freedom fighter died fighting Pakistani forces in the Maulavi Bazar district (adjacent to Tripura border) of the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, on Oct 28, 1971.
Rahman, who was 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, was buried in Tripura’s Hatimarachara village in Dhalai district.
“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.
“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, also a freedom fighter, said.
“I express my thankfulness to those freedom fighters and people who took the initiative to take back the remains of Hamidur to his motherland,” Sarkar said after paying respect to Bangladesh war hero.
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.