Memory of late Capt Bashar
MARCH is the month of our glorious independence. Here I speak of the torments suffered by a brave son of Bangladesh before his death at the hands of the occupation Pakistan army during the Liberation War.
This is the tale of Captain Khairul Bashar, ASC, the then OC of Station Supply Depot (SSD), Chittagong Cantonment. He was bayoneted to death after a month-long inhuman torture, on 29 May, 1971 by the rapacious Pakistan army. He was killed because of his straight denial to become a state witness against Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was then imprisoned in a Pakistani jail and facing trial on treason charge.
Bashar was under captivity in a concentration camp set up by the occupation army at the present Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
The military junta decided to kill Bashar by inflicting inhuman torture on him at a Joint Interrogation Cell. Pakistan army brought innumerable charges against him including that of treason and killing Pakistani Colonel Junjua.
But after killing him, the cowards did not even hand over the body of Bashar to his wife. She and Bashar's one-year-old daughter was then under house arrest at a house in (then) 623, Dhanmondi Residential Area, Road No.-20, the residence of Bashar's aunt.
Capt. Bashar had hoisted the national flag of Bangladesh atop the perambulator of his baby daughter after the historic speech of Bangabandhu March 7, 1971. Then Bashar moved around Chittagong Cantonment with the perambulator carrying his minor daughter. This incident is still bright in the memory of the Bangali army officers and jawans who were posted then at Chittagong Cantonment.
During the fiery days of 1971, Bashar named Chittagong Station Supply Depot as Tigers' Den. The officers and soldiers of Baluch Regiment attacked the Tigers' Den in a bid to capture it. But Bashar and his men successfully repulsed the attack. All the Bangali officers and soldiers of Chittagong Cantonment witnessed his courage and bravery.
On arrival of the arms and ammunition-loaded Pakistani ship, Swat, at Chittagong port, Bashar erected barricades on the streets with the help of local students and youths. The barricades were erected to resist movement of the Pakistan army lorries after unloading the Swat. At this time Bashar wrote a letter to his brother-in-law saying: “Now we are totally capable of forcing the Pakistani forces to surrender before us.”
On 25 March night Bashar left his cantonment residence along with his spouse and a minor daughter to take part in the liberation war.
Memory of this brave son of the soil comes alive in March, the month of the Independence.
The writer is a brother of Capt Bashar
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