Chhabed Sathee: Expatriate freedom fighter and journalist Harun Chowdhury has been living in Virginia for a long time. He is simultaneously a writer, journalist and poet. Born in Dhaka in 1951, Harun Chowdhury, a heroic freedom fighter, trained in 1971 at Melaghar, Agartala in India. He then took part in the war of liberation in Sector 2 K Force under Khaled Mosharraf and Major Haider. At that time he was the commander of Srinagar thana.
Harun Chowdhury’s book ‘Amar Muktijuddho Amar Ahankar 1971’ by expatriate freedom fighter and journalist. Ananya came out of the publication in February 2018. After the publication of the book, there was a great response among the expatriate readers including the freedom fighters of the country. In recent times, the interest of people, especially the youth, towards writing about the liberation war has increased a lot. Therefore, when a freedom fighter reminisces about the liberation war, it will naturally make the reader curious.
It is necessary to examine what journalist Harun Chowdhury or Ananya Prakashani is presenting to the readers as a memoir book. In particular, it seems important to analyze the information and statements presented in this book as a reader of history when the occupation is the war of liberation. Because the full history of the liberation war will be written from the testimonies of what the freedom fighters have said, are saying and will say and those who have not seen the war will be able to know about the huge and wide background of the liberation war.
In that context, in the book ‘Amar Muktijuddho Amar Ahankar 1971’ by expatriate freedom fighter and journalist Harun Chowdhury, he has presented various reminiscences of his time during the liberation war in a very self-sufficient and impeccable language. I am trying to examine the information and comments presented in the book.
Whenever the thought of consciousness comes to mind, those wartime days float in the pages of memory. On that day, the brave boys of Bengal risked their lives to fight. And we fought shoulder to shoulder with them. The battlefield led them.
The only goal is to liberate the country from enemies and achieve independence. So this war was our pride and arrogance. We wanted to build the country with our own hands. Where there will be no violence or hatred, violence Bangabandhu was inspired in his speech on March 7 and the nation stood in one line regardless of party affiliation (except the opponents of independence). Bangabandhu called upon seven and a half crore Bengalis to form Sangram Parishads under the leadership of Awami League in the face of the enemy. The Bengali nation, immersed in this mantra, was determined to realize a dream under his leadership to achieve the ultimate victory. Inspired by him, in the days of war, we faced the enemy to avenge the cries of thousands of mothers, the cries of children and the cries of sisters. The brutality of the Pakistani aggressors also defeated the brutality of the historical Chingis Khan. That is why the determination of the freedom fighters to win the war became more intense. The whole of Bangladesh was then a battlefield. When we guerrillas were scattered to destroy the enemy, the image of the oppression of the innocent Bengalis by the Pakistanis and their allies made the freedom fighters more reckless in attacking the enemy. It would have sharpened our sense of victory.
On that day we saw innumerable abandoned bodies of innocent Bengali farmers, workers, students, women and old and children lying on the fields, ghats, rivers and roadsides of Bengal. This was a painful picture of the brutal torture of the invading forces of Pakistan and their allies. I saw the helpless howls and cries of the bereaved. I saw silent tears in the eyes of mother and sister. In the meantime, they gave food, clothing, shelter and support to the freedom fighters. On that day, the mothers and sisters sat in Jain prayers, raised their hands and offered prayers and shed secret tears. When we went to the area a few days after the end of an operation, we found out that the Pak aggressors and their local accomplices had set fire to someone’s house in the area, tortured their mothers and sisters, or taken them away. Along with this, genocide was carried out. It was then that the whole of Bangladesh witnessed their daily oppression and cruelty. That is why the bloody tradition of so many heroes, the tears of so many mothers, the cries of thousands of sisters, the cries of children and the blurred vision of orphans are obsessed with this fighting tradition of sacrifice.
The war of resistance started on the night of March 25. On that day, members of EPR, police, mujahid, ansar and armed forces, students, peasants, workers and people of all walks of life came together and formed a formidable resistance in their respective areas without any pre-preparation. Bangabandhu’s speech on March 7 was the main source of inspiration. In the course of this war of resistance, within a period of about two weeks, he entered the main phase of the planned war of independence with the same enthusiasm and full of courage and swearing.
Guerrilla-style ambush, raids, grenade action, and often frontal attacks were on the rise. After fighting in Kasba Sector 2 of Comilla under Khaled Mosharraf and Major Haider in K Force, our Srinagar Thana was declared a free zone before we entered the land of Bikrampur. Some of the details of the guerrilla and frontal warfare in some areas under his leadership are mentioned in various writings of this book including the guerrilla training camp at Sholghar and the war chapter at Syedpur.
BP/SM
