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SHIRIN BANU MITIL
‘A shy girl with a gun’
by Konka Karim
Every day, Shirin Banu Mitil, would sit with the boys, and strategise and plan for the impending war, only to see them off at the door while they went out. She was not satisfied. At 21 and only a second year honours student, she had already become the president of the central committee of the Pabna district Chhatra Union and was actively participating in training as early as March 11, 1971. Yet, when the time came for action, she had to sit back home.
‘I used to wear saris at the time and it severely restricted my mobility,’ she recalls.
Then one day, her cousin Jinjir, also an active member in the movement, suggested that she should dress up like a man.
‘”Why don’t you disguise yourself in a man’s clothes, like Preeti Lata, and come to the war with us?” he said,’ says Mitil.
She pranced on the idea. She put on a pair of trousers and a shirt and stood in front of her aunt, the head of a fifty-one member household – Mitil’s maternal grandparent’s home and where she resided – for her permission. Her aunt liked what she saw.
It was March 27. By then, the inhabitants of Pabna with the help of their dynamic district commissioner Nurul Quader Khan, Abdur Rab (MP) and Aminul Islam Badshah, secretary of NAP (Muzaffar), Pabna, had fully prepared themselves for war. The police barracks had been emptied and the civilians had been handed over weapons. There was also no Pakistan military cantonment at Pabna, which played to their favour.
From March 27 to 28, residents of Pabna, even ones as far away from chars, plunged on the local Pakistani soldiers stationed at the telephone centre and the local treasury, with guns, knives, and every other sharp object they possessed. Not one soldier was left alive.
Dressed like a man with a rifle in her hand Mitil stood on top a cinema hall while taking part in the attack at the telephone centre. By April 29, Pabna was free and in the hands of the locals. ‘We were not killing people- we were killing the enemy,’ she explains the zeal she felt at the time.
Till then, Mitil had only confided in Badshah about her identity, who in turn informed Nurul Quader, who then arranged for her to be stationed at the control room. Mitil slept with the men every night, tactfully arranging her place beside her brother. While the other soldiers jumped in to the pond to take a bath, Jinjir quietly arranged some water for Mitil who discreetly bathed in the bushes.
Pabna was free territory from March 29 to April 10. Around this time, Manosh Ghosh, an Indian journalist working for the Statesman, had entered Pabna and enquired to Nurul Quader on what the women of Pabna were doing for the war. Quader proudly introduced him to Mitil.
When Manosh published his story ‘A shy girl with a gun’, with a photo of her carrying a rifle, Mitil had turned into an international celebrity.
By April 9, the Pakistani forces had begun heavily shelling Pabna and Mitil had to retreat along with many soldiers, led by Badshah. Interestingly, during all these days, hardly anyone suspected her of being a girl.
‘While travelling on a boat one of the soldiers who knew me asked Jinjir whether I was Mitil’s twin brother. Jinjir suggested that I keep at a distance from him so that he would not notice the pierce marks on my ears,’ she laughs.
Mitil and her fellows retreated to Kushtia and regrouped with retreating fighters from Bogra and other districts of the country. There, they put up another resistance, before finally deciding to retreat further north, to Chuadanga.
As Mitil and many others boarded a car to start, the driver informed that the car was overcrowded and two people had to step down. Mitil and Jinjir were the last two to board so they were the first ones to get down.
Stranded and clueless about what to do next, Mitil and her cousin were rescued by a vehicle carrying Indian journalists. By then, the journalists already knew who she was and allowed her on board. She made it to Agartala from there.
In India, Mitil registered her name as Mitil Khondokar but she was soon discovered owing her already-existing fame. She became an instant celebrity and boarded in the legendary left leader Ila Mitra’s house.
‘From there on I met many important personalities, including Tajuddin Ahmad, the prime minister of the Bangladesh government in exile, who asked me to organise and motivate women to set up a training camp for them.’
She actively participated in organising women who were interested, attended meetings and giving speeches as well as speaking to the media-everything in the interest of the war. She later began training at a camp set up for women under Awami league leader Sajeda Chowdhury. The war was, however, over before her training ended.
Presently working at Prip Trust, a non-governmental organisation as the gender and governance director, Mitil feels let down by the events that have ensued since.
‘Last year, when I went to Pabna for the March 26 celebrations I came across a huge event organised by the Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir. The same people who fought against us are now stealing even our independence movement,’ she says.
When asked about the controversy over the inheritance law in the freshly drafted women’s policy, she says, ‘They are the most organised force in this country. If we do not do something to punish them immediately they will steal every movement we fought for.’
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Gendered independence