Valour of three teenage freedom fighters
"We got inspiration from the historic speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7 in 1971. After the black night of March 25, we took oath to free the motherland from the Pakistani occupation forces,” said Abdul Khalek, a valiant freedom fighter (FF) of Tangail.
When Kaderia Bahini of Tangail led by Abdul Kader Siddique started fighting the Pakistan army in April, Khalek, then a 15-year-old boy reading in Class VII at Mushuria village in Elasin union under Delduar upazila, along with fellow students Abdul Mazid and Mozibor Rahman of the same village decided to join the Liberation War.
They motivated other youths in area for the purpose.
Later, as per direction of Kader Siddique, the three boys along with 21 others went to Mainkar Char in India by boat at the end of May.
"We took training on front fight under 6 Bihar Regiment of India at Tura Camp for 21 days and later 7 days' guerrilla training in Meghalaya," Khalek said.
"After the training, the Indian trainers used to send us to conduct recce in the bordering camps of Pakistani forces. Our training included braving odds, like taking roots of trees or bamboos for survival during hunger," he said.
"We conducted surprise attacks on the enemy and ran back to the Indian land," he added.
Later, the freedom fighters with Indian allied forces took part in the face to face fight with the Pakistan army in the bordering areas of Mymensingh region and destroyed several bases of the Pakistani forces.
A teacher of Bangladesh Agriculture University in Mymensingh took a photo of Khalek, Mazid and Mozibor when they were in action to destroy a bunker at a base of the Pakistani forces at Shambhuganj in Mymensingh on December 7.
Later, the photo got huge reputation and which has still been using in Liberation War related placards, banners as well as in the cover pages of the textbooks.
After the final victory on December 16 in 1971, they returned to the country and handed over arms and ammunition at a programme at the Agriculture University in Mymensingh.
They started going to school again.
Khalek took a job at a carpet mills in Chittagong in 1988. He later worked at a construction firm and then a furniture company. Now, he is living a retired life at a tin-shed on a piece of land given by the construction firm in Foy's Lake area of Chittagong.
Mazid returned to his village after retiring from the job of Ansar Battalion in Chittagong while Mozibor died of cancer in 2014 after living as a rickshaw puller.
"The freedom fighters in Tangail, especially Kaderia Bahini, played a unique role in the Liberation War," Khalek said.
"If there was no allowance for the freedom fighters, so many people would not be included in the list. If there was such huge number of freedom fighters, the country would be liberated in three months instead of nine months and without taking help of any foreign country," he said.
"Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the architect of the Liberation War and independent Bangladesh. So, I can't tolerate anything against Bangabandhu, Liberation War and independence," he added.
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