Photo: Anisur Rahman

SHAHEED Colonel Quadrat Elahi Rahman Shafique, ndc, psc, was born on November 1, 1962 in Rangpur. He was a brilliant officer and was going to be promoted to Brigadier General when the Army Promotion Board sat in July-August 2009.
After passing out from Cadet College he joined BMA, and was commissioned on June 10, 1983. While undergoing military training he stood first in B Sc. from Chittagong University. Then he began his career as an officer of the 3rd Bengal. As a captain he was sent to the School of Infantry & Tactics (SINT) in Sylhet, and was appointed as instructor -- a post that is given only to the first boy in each course.
For the first time three officers were sent to the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) through its normal admission examination. He stood first in MBA (Marketing), bringing glory to the Bangladesh army.
Thereafter, he went on a UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia for one year. Soon after his return he was posted as brigade major (BM) in Bandarban Cantonment for a few months. Meanwhile, he appeared for the examination for Defense Services Command & Staff College (DSCSC) to get his psc. He came out with flying colours, and was sent to Malaysia for doing his second psc for a year.
After his return from Malaysia, he was again posted to SINT as a major to train a group of senior officers. From there he was posted as 2 IC (2nd in Command) of the 1st Bengal Infantry Regiment in Sylhet.
Meanwhile, the government decided to open a Military Institute of Science & Technology (MIST) to impart education in B.Sc (Engineering), MBA, Computer Engineering etc., which was previously being done in Buet and other places. The army decided to put Elahi as an instructor there.
Soon, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel. As normal practice, after being promoted to Lt. Col., one is given command of a battalion. As a special case, in order to set up the MIST, the chief of the army posted Lt. Col Elahi there to design and begin the first MBA Course, which he did for one year.
After that, Elahi was posted as Commanding Officer of 18 Bengal Regiment in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Two years later he was brought back to the DSCSC as Directing Staff (DS). After a few months he was promoted to colonel and posted as Senior Instructor (SI) in the Staff College.
He was sent to Sudan in 2007 with the UN peacekeeping mission as sector commander for one year. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon decorated him with the Medal of Gallantry, which only a few officers of the UN peace mission from Bangladesh have received so far.
When he returned from Sudan he was sent to National Defense College (NDC) for a one-year course, which normally is given only to officers of the rank of brigadier general and above. He successfully completed his NDC corse in December 2008. While doing his ndc he completed M.Phil from Dhaka University.
I and my wife wanted him to finish his studies, go abroad, do his Ph.D and become a professor in a foreign university. He silently wanted to fulfill our desire and make us happy. However Allah's will eventually led him to join the army and be murdered by some BDR soldiers.
On January 11, 2009, he was made sector commander of BDR in Dinajpur. He came to Dhaka for observance of the BDR Week on Febtuary 21, 2009. The hellish BDR carnage occurred on February 25-26 in Pilkhana, Dhaka. He was a hostage in the Darbar Hall, and was reportedly shot in the head on the same day.
We were all sitting before the television watching the events taking place for three days and saw his name on the screen on the 27th afternoon. We were frantically trying to contact him but there was no response. He was so responsible as a son, a father and a husband that he always used to telephone or send messages wherever he was. But in this tragic event he did not make a single call or send any message to any of us because we would only worry and run hither and thither to find news about him for nothing. It simply proved how considerate he was!
A painful memory is that after finishing the BDR Week on February 27, he was supposed to take me and his mother to Dinajpur for a few days. Death is inevitable, but losing a son like Elahi is utterly unbearable.
Elahi was set to be a brigadier general. It is a pity he left this world in the prime of his career without a star (brigadier) although he proved himself a star in the Bangladesh army. He was only 46 years and 3 months old.
Quadrat Elahi was a sweet and loveable person to his superiors, colleagues, friends and relations. He was most caring and dutiful to his parents, wife, child, brothers, sisters and all. He was even very dear to his drivers, batmen and domestic help. He was soft-spoken and kind to all.
When his body was being lowered to the grave, one officer remarked: "Wherever Elahi has served his juniors or even his seniors had many things to take lessons from." At the same place a brigadier general in uniform said: "In the loss of Colonel Elahi the countrymen will never know what the army has lost." An officer with tears in his eyes said: "In the BDR Mutiny the loss we have suffered Bangladesh Army cannot be recovered in 50 years."
Out of thousands of BDR men only a handful of them knew him in 1 month and 10 days in Dinajpur. He had no enemies. Why were brilliant unarmed officers so brutally murdered? Was it a conspiracy to weaken the Bangladesh Army? Will the truth ever come out? Possibly not. We demand that the government unearth the mystery. The countrymen have a right to know the truth, and culprits must be punished.
Perhaps it was the will of Allah that he was so dear to all and He took him in His lap at the zenith of his life. May Allah the most magnificent and merciful grant him Jannat-ul Ferdous. Amen.
As I write the above lines in memory of my son, my eyes are becoming hazy, tears are flowing down my cheeks, my heart is bleeding. I cannot write anymore.
The heartrending cries and ocean of tears of those of us who have lost our sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, will certainly fall on the conspirators and murderers from the Creator Himself, today or tomorrow. If earthly justice is delayed or denied, justice from Allah will certainly fall on them -- this is our firm faith in Him, the Omniscient and the greatest Judge in heaven and earth.

Habibur Rahman is father of Shaheed Col. Quadrat Elahi Rahman Shafique.