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FARIDA KHANAM SAKI
‘We will keep on fighting’
by Musfequr Rahman Chowdhury
In September 1971 Noakhali, a south-eastern district of Bangladesh, was reeking with razakars. A guerrilla group of the Bangladesh Liberation Force, under the command of Mahmudur Rahman Belayet, entered the district through the border near Belonia, Feni, guided by Kutub, a freedom fighter in the disguise of a razakar who kept track of the movement of the enemy forces. It took them 30 to 35 hours to reach Noakhali travelling in boats through marshlands and the jungle.
In the group of 50, there were two women – Farida Khanam Saki and her younger sister Shirin Jahan Dilruba.
‘We would cross the border at night and take shelter in the storeroom of Nuruzzaman, a local doctor,’ recalls Saki, sitting at her Dhanmondi home 37 years later, now happily married to Belayet. ‘Nuruzzaman would keep a tab on the Pakistan army and the collaborators. When things turned dangerous we would move out and disperse into other homes. When it became too dangerous we would momentarily return to India.’
Then sometime in September, Saki fails to recall the date, they attacked a militia camp of the Pakistan army at Senbagh, Noakhali at night. Earlier in the day, the militias had attacked a group of labourers, also freedom fighters, leaving many dead and injured. The labourers and the BLF then united to strike back.
‘I wore a waist bag carrying a big knife, two pistols and three hand grenades. When we lunged on them they hit back at us with bombs and fire. We responded with heavy fire from machine gun, kata rifle and hand grenades.’
‘The fight lasted from dawn till 10:00am in the morning. The militias gave up in the end. Some of them died while the rest escaped,’ Saki says, recalling the first of her two glorious missions.
At night, they would take shelter at any of the houses of the district and were welcomed warmly. ‘They would give us dry food like gur and chira to take away even though they were struggling with food themselves during those times.’
At dawn they would start for Nuruzzaman’s house. ‘While retreating we would meet the religious people starting for their morning prayers. They would embrace us, give us their blessings and provide us with whatever information they could.’
On December 7, Saki would enter Bangladesh with the BLF forces at night, slaying many razakars on the way. Noakhali district was liberated on the next day.
A member of the central executive committee of the East Pakistan Chhatra League, Saki was amongst the few girls who were at the Rokeya Hall during the crackdown on the night of March 25 to keep in touch with other halls as well as other members of the party. ‘We heard heavy gunfire, heavy artillery and tanks and the cries of people. Then we heard a crash on the Rokeya Hall gate. We rushed to an old room of the hall super and hid there. They came inside the hall and accompanying them were Biharis hunting for Bengali female students,’ she says.
Saki had already received rifle training at the gymnasium ground at Dhaka University and the next day when she saw a sea of bodies, especially the now famous image of a dead body hanging from a rickshaw, she was determined to fight back. She reached Baily Road where her father lived and they moved to their hometown in Sherpur.
In June 1971, Saki entered India through Chottakhola, under Chaddagram thana. By August, she completed a month-long arms training at the Lambuchara camp at Agartala, India under Major Sharma and Major KV Singh of the Indian army.
‘In Agartala, me and seven other women stayed at a rented house. We would hear about upcoming missions and we prepared ourselves to take part in them. In the meanwhile, we went to the camps during the days, nursed wounded soldiers and cooked food and washed clothes for them.’
Saki feels that she did not receive any recognition for her services in the war because she did not fight under the Mukti Bahini. ‘However, I have no regrets over it. I was proud I fought in the liberation.’
Today, Saki is the joint secretary of the Mahila Muktijoddha Sangsad though she likes to identify herself as a housewife. She has two daughters and a son.
In 1997, she was one of the active campaigners for the women’s development policy working with different organisations and laments the fact that it has not been implemented till today.
‘We fought equally with men to free the state which till this day does not ensure our equal rights with men. It is very painful,’ she says. ‘If the current policy does not ensure our equality we will keep on fighting.’
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Gendered independence