By IANS,
Dhaka: Gen. Mir Shawkat Ali, a Pakistan Army officer who switched sides to fight Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971, has died here at the age of 72.
Ali, who died Saturday, was commander of Sector 5 that covered much of the border along Sylhet district in the then East Pakistan during the war. He was given gallantry award Bir Uttam for his valour.
On retiring from the Bangladesh Army in 1981 as a lieutenant general, he joined the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He was later the high commissioner to Britain and Australia.
He served as a minister in the government (1991-96) of Begum khaleda Zia. Ali rebelled against Zia and resigned as BNP’s vice chairman in 2007 after denouncing the party’s alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami.
Zia never accepted the resignation, New Age newspaper said Sunday.