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FORQUAN BEGUM
‘We have not been recognised’
by Saad Hammadi
‘Instead of saluting Pakistan Day on March 23, we celebrated Bangladesh by raising the independence flag at the outer stadium and marching through an arms parade,’ says Forquan Begum, a guerrilla fighter of Bangladesh’s liberation war.
That afternoon, after lunch, she left Dhaka to see her mother in village Putina of Narayanganj.
‘With a pistol, a diary and grenade tucked inside my petticoat, I started from home. As soon as I reached there, people from around my village gathered at my house to receive directions,’ Forquan says. ‘They knew I had close ties with student leaders as I had often walked in the front row of different demonstrations.’
Between March 23 and 25, Pakistani armed forces began their operation to block access between districts. By then, Yahya Khan and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had several meetings and Yahya had brought in the armed forces.
‘On the night of March 25, when the attack began, I could see flames from my home and hear tank fire. A lot of people in the early morning were arriving in Putina from Dhaka for shelter. Fear was visible in their eyes and they informed villagers that a lakh people were killed on the streets of Dhaka.’
As there was no scope for Forquan to leave in such situation, she asked elder members to complete their morning prayers and assemble at a nearby school field where she briefed them about war preparations. ‘I made ten committees which included guerrilla, security, funding, selection and others.’
‘While preparing Putina villagers for war, in the last week of May, I received a letter from ASM Abdur Rab, then vice president of the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union asking me to arrive at Agartala with my force. As I had to leave my village, I handed over my command to my mother, Rokeya Begum.’
‘By the first week of June when I arrived at Agartala, I did the same job of developing squads. I had to look after 32 camps in Agartala and select members for guerrilla war, nursing, mobile library and other tasks.’
War had become intense by then in the east warfront when US Senator Edward Kennedy visited camps in Agartala between September and October. ‘I described to him the inhuman torture inflicted upon our freedom fighters. He was so shocked by the Pakistan army’s brutality that he asked me how he could help me in this situation.’ Forquan asked him to find information about Sheikh Mujib because there were rumours that he had been killed.
Within seven days, Edward replied to her saying that Mujib was safe and alive in a Pakistani prison. Edward’s response made headlines on the Statesman, Anandabazar and a few other Indian newspapers the next day, titled ‘Edward responds to a DU student’s query’.
‘As the war continued, Nasiruddin Bhuiyan Nashu, my nephew, collected the Pakistan army’s action blue print, which had their strategy for attack and their locations.’
‘Once, we got stuck in Bitgar, Comilla because the Pakistan army had occupied the road to Agartala. The Pakistan army had already raided Bitgar. We sought shelter at the residence of Kalu Sarkar, a collaborator. It was yet another achievement to convince him to become a freedom fighter.’
Forquan requested him to introduce her to the local people who worked for the Pakistan army and later convinced them to fight for independence by allowing freedom fighters access to Agartala.
‘I asked them to maintain a good relation with the Pakistan army and convince them that freedom fighters did not exist in the area and at the same time allow freedom fighters entry to Agartala.
While staying in Bitgar, Forquan involved herself in two attacks. ‘Jhunu and I charged a grenade at a jeep of the Pakistan army. In another incident, I took the men of the village and charged a grenade at a Pakistan army camps about 1.5 miles from Bitgar.’
Afterwards, Forquan got back to Agartala and started working in the camps again.
‘During a plan to infiltrate into Dhaka, Major Khaled Mosharraf sat at a meeting with us in order to recruit female guerrillas. I could not expose myself in the guerrilla action because the Pakistan army had already identified me in earlier movements.’ She, therefore, stayed back to organise the female guerrilla fighters and aided Major Khaled in his planning of the operation in Dhaka.
‘I made a nursing squad in two government hospitals and other camps to provide assistance to the injured fighters. When Khaled Mosharraf and General Rab were injured, Khaled was sent to Dehradoon for treatment and Rab was sent to Agartala’s GB hospital where my squad members nursed him.’
Thirty-seven years later, Forquan regrets the fact that the state has given no recognition for women’s contribution to the birth of this nation and to its development. ‘It is the society that does not recognise women’s contribution to national development,’ she says. ‘Today, I have no work. I have written to the government to allow me to serve the state but there has not been any action in this regard.’
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Gendered independence