By IANS,
Dhaka : Qazi Nooruzzaman, a hero of Bangladesh’s liberation war who served the British Indian Navy and three armies during his lifetime, is dead. He was 86, a media report said.
The 1925-born Nooruzzaman studied chemistry at St Xavier’s College, Kolkata before joining the British Indian Navy in 1943. He fought in World War II.
In 1946, he sought transfer to the Indian Army and received his training at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.
He was commissioned into the Indian Army in the second batch of the Indian Military Academy in 1947.
As his family opted to stay in Pakistan during partition, Nooruzzaman went with the Pakistan Army and retired as a Lt Colonel.
He returned to East Pakistan to manage the Narayanganj Dockyard, and briefly came back to military service during the 1965 India-Pakistan conflict.
The veteran was back in action during the 1971 freedom movement. As Mukti Bahini’s commander of Sector 7, he oversaw the operations over a vast territory spanning then East Pakistan’s western and northern flanks from Rajshahi to Thakurgaon.
For his heroic role in the war, Nooruzzaman was awarded the second highest gallantry award of the nation, the Bir Uttam.
After independence, Nooruzzaman continued to play his role as one of the “Muktijoddhas”, the soldiers who fought the freedom war.
The Daily Star Saturday said he died of old age complications in a city hospital Friday.