Saad Hammadi chronicles Birsreshtha Hamidur Rahman’s life and his final journey back home

Thirty six years later when the remains of Bir Shreshtha martyred Sepoy Hamidur Rahman was finally brought to his homeland on December 11 and laid to rest with the highest state honours, his mother Kaisunnesa, who had long desired to practically see her son’s graveyard, was no more.
   She passed away in 2005 with the grief that none of the previous governments could provide her with an opportunity to see her martyred son’s graveyard.
   With the return of Hamidur’s remains to the country, the nation now has all of its seven greatest war heroes sleeping in its own backyard- laid to rest at the Mirpur Martyred Intellectual’s Graveyard. He was buried beside the grave of Bir Shreshtha Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman, whose remains were brought in the country earlier this year.
   After the Indian authorities handed over Hamidur’s coffin to the Bangladesh Rifles in Comilla on December 10, the remains were taken to the Dhaka cantonment in a motorcade from Jatrabari and then to the National Parade Square on December 11.
   A contingent drawn from the army, navy and the air force gave him a guard of honour followed by the military bugle awarding the last salute to the warrior as the president, the chief adviser and other dignitaries and people of various professions stood in solemn silence.
   A 21-gun salute was fired at the arrival of his coffin in the Parade Square.
   The last ride of the war hero began from the Parade Square to the graveyard at Mirpur. Another gun salute was fired in the Mirpur graveyard during the ceremonial burial in the presence of the chiefs of army, navy and air force.
   ‘When my mother was alive, she had made several requests to the governments in the past to locate her son’s graveyard in India and let her see his remains at least, for once,’ remembers Hamidur’s younger brother Fazlur Rahman who had accompanied the seven member Bangladeshi delegation to receive his remains from India. ‘Even if it is for a glimpse I want to see where my son has been buried in India,’ Fazlur quotes his mother as saying.
   ‘I have been to that place and identified my brother’s graveyard. None of the past governments in the last 36 years were able to create this opportunity for my mother to see her martyred son’s graveyard. It is so sad to that it is happening now with such honour when she is no more.’
   In Bangladesh’s South-western border, at the Khalishpur village of Jhenidah district, Hamidur was born in the family of Akkas Ali Mondal and Kaisunnesa. According to the East Bengal Regiment records, Hamidur was born on February 2, 1953. As the eldest son of his parents, Hamid helped his father with his masonry work. He was not able to continue much of his education as he needed to support his family financially. He initially studied in the Khalishpur Primary School and then continued for sometime in a local night school. From a tender age, Hamid had great interest in sports and maintained an athletic physique. He was renowned for being an excellent kabadi player in his community.
   Besides his passion for athletics, Hamid was an honest and sincere person. He was praised and admired for his active involvement in social activities in his village. Not only was he a pious Muslim but neighbours talk of him as the first person to come forward and do the rituals in a funeral if anyone died in his village.
   Prior to joining the Mukti Bahini, Hamidur had acquired training from the Ansar. On February 2, 1971, Hamidur joined the East Bengal Regiment and went to its camp in Chittagong. On March 25, when the Pakistan forces attacked the army quarters, Hamidur had moved back to his village. Later he joined the Charlie Company of the East Bengal Regiment with the Mukti Bahini in the Dholoy area of Sylhet district’s southeast border under the Srimangal Police Station.
   During the last week of October, 1971, from the military’s strategic perspective, the Pakistan army’s base in the Dholoy area had to be destroyed as it was of the utmost importance to free the border from enemy forces. The Dholoy area under Kamalganj upazila was located approximately 16 kilometres southeast of Srimangal district. A border outpost was positioned only 100 yards inside the international frontier. In October of 1971, under the jurisdiction of the Z force, the first East Bengal Regiment’s Charlie Company was given the responsibility to take over Dholoy. The then company commander Lieutenant Quaiyum Chowdhury decided to initiate an attack to take over Dholoy in the wee hours of the night on October 28, 1971.
   ‘I was then the Charlie Company Commander of the first East Bengal Regiment,’ says Major (Retd) MA Quaiyum Chowdhury. Under his command the attack was planned at 4:00 in the early morning. The code word to begin the war was named ‘chole jao’.
   Pakistan had two companies of its 30 Frontier Force Regiment and some platoons of Mujahid deployed in the Dholoy border area with a single border outpost. The C Company headed by Lt Quaiyum was based about 1,000 yards away from the Dholoy area. After proceeding about 500 yards with his forces in the middle of the night, Quaiyum could not advance any further towards the enemy territory because the enemy forces were continuously firing from their two machine gun posts located at the Dholoy entrance.
   When Quaiyum’s troops were confined to 500 yards behind their target, it became necessary to blow up the gun posts. ‘Sepoy Hamidur Rahman was my runner at that time. I told him to blow up the machine gun posts,’ recalls Quaiyum.
   From one side of an embankment Hamid valiantly crawled forward with grenades to charge at the gun posts. He had gradually reached close to 20 yards from the target and charged grenade on to the gun posts. ‘The machine guns’ fire had eventually stopped. We thought Hamid had safely taken his position in a bunker after destroying the LMG,’ says Quaiyum.
   After providing first aid to members who were injured in the operation, they moved on to the Forward Assembly Area but Hamidur was not around, as he observed. ‘I later realised that Hamidur had sacrificed himself in the operation to secure liberation for the country.
   After blowing the first gun posts successfully Hamidur could not survive the enemy fires during his mission to blow up the second gun post,’ says Lt Col (retd) Sajjad Ali Jahir, who was a member of the committee that went to India to receive Hamidur’s remains. ‘On that dreadful night, despite losing his life, Hamidur managed to stop the LMG firing by blowing up both the gun posts.’
   ‘While in service in the Pakistan Army, they often said Bengalis do not know how to fight in a battle. On October 28, 1971, those who witnessed Hamidur’s rage and fight in the fierce battle will not have the words to speak as such,’ says Sajjad. ‘In the list of world’s legendary soldiers, Hamidur should have one of the top ranking positions.’
   ‘When he was leaving for the independence war, my brother told me that he will return after 20 days and that I could take care of him as much as I wanted after he arrived,’ recalls Hamid’s younger brother.
   On November 3, 1971, Dholoy was eventually taken over by the Bangladesh Army. Sepoy Hamidur Rahman’s corpse was buried in the Ambassa village of Tripura province, 30 kilometres south of Dholoy.
   ‘We always tried to bury the corpses of our martyred soldiers inside our territory to grant them the honour for sacrificing his life for the country’s independence,’ says Major (Retd) Kamrul Hasan Bhuiyan. But during the attack in Dholoy on October, the Pakistan Army’s position in the area was so strong that it became difficult to bring Hamidur’s corpse from there, he says. ‘The situation did not give us the opportunity to bring the martyred Sepoy’s corpse back into Bangladesh.’
   Because the rear headquarter of the first East Bengal Regiment was based in Ambassa, his corpse was taken there. Abdur Rahman alias Lokman Mia, a resident in the Muslim Para had allowed us to bury Martyred Hamidur beside his mother’s graveyard.
   For his valiant effort in the liberation war Sepoy Hamidur was given the gallantry award of Bir Shreshtha. In recognition of Hamidur’s martyrdom, the Bangladesh Rifles established a monument in the Dholoy area, the battlefield where Hamidur breathed his last breath.
   For 36 years Hamidur’s corpse remained outside his homeland.
   ‘We had been to the Hatimarachhara village and spoke to the aged members who witnessed Hamidur’s burial back in 1971,’ says Sajjad who along with few other officials went there to identify Hamidur’s graveyard. ‘We had found four key witnesses who helped us identify Hamidur’s graveyard under a tombstone written ‘Community Tank’.’
   Lokman Mia’s son Ali Mia had dived down about 3 feet under water to collect pieces of bricks from Hamidur’s graveyard.
   The grave had fallen in disrepair and was under a pond. Water had to be pumped out to exhume Hamidur’s remains. ‘My father knew Hamidur Rahman well when he crossed over for the war. From childhood, I have been watching this grave here. I asked my father about it and heard from him that this is Hamidur Rahman’s grave. During my school days, I used to clean the grave,’ he said.
   Finally, 36 years later, Hamidur rests in peace in the arms of his motherland, for which he had fought and did not falter to sacrifice his own life.