<i>When home 'forgets', how would others remember?</i>

The pillar inscribed with 'Dr Fazle Rabbi Road' in Pabna town has remained fallen for long as the municipality authorities, who earlier named three-kilometre Bablatala-Buderhat Road in the town after the martyred intellectual, did not rebuild the pillar after its damage by some callous locals.Photo: STAR

Strangely though, the new generation in the district knows very little about the glorious contribution of Dr Fazle Rabbi, as there is hardly any programme commemorating the martyred intellectual in his home district.
Just a couple of days before the nation's final victory against the Pakistan army on December 1971, local collaborators of the occupation forces picked up and killed Dr Fazle Rabbi along with a number of others intellectuals.
Born on September 21 in 1932 at Chhatiani village in Pabna Sadar upazila, Dr Fazle Rabbi passed the SSC in 1948 from Pabna Zila School and the HSC from Dhaka College in 1950 with brilliant results. He completed MBBS in 1955 from Dhaka Medical College under Dhaka University and received gold medal for his outstanding results.
Later he joined Dhaka Medical College as registrar.
In 1960 Dr Rabbi went to England for higher studies and achieved an MRCP in cardiology and another MRCP in medicine from there in 1962.
He served Hammersmith Hospital and then Middlesex Hospital in England. Despite a chequered career there, Dr Rabbi came back to his motherland and joined Dhaka Medical College as an associate professor in 1963.
An advocate of equitable rights of the Bangalees during the Pakistan period, Dr Rabbi extended all sorts of cooperation to the freedom fighters and victims of torture by the Pakistan army and their aides during the Liberation War.
The local collaborators of Pakistan army picked up Dr Fazle Rabbi from his Dhaka residence on December 14 in 1971 and killed him at Royer Bazar along with other intellectuals.
Md Shahidul Islam, secretary of Dr Fazle Rabbi Foundation, said, "We observe programmes on Martyred Intellectuals Day in Dhaka but there is hardly any programme in Pabna in memory of Dr Fazle Rabbi. The demand for naming Pabna Medical College after the martyred intellectual has also remained unheeded."
Established by Dr Rabbi's younger sister Zinat Ara, the foundation conducts free medical service and arranges free education for poor children in Pabna and Dhaka, he said.
“Some callous people damaged two of the three pillars set up by the Pabna municipality authorities as indicators of the three-kilometre Bablatola-Buderhat road, earlier named after Dr Fazle Rabbi. Despite repeated appeal, the authorities are yet to reset the pillars,” said Dr Rabbi's nephew Fazle Shahran Bipu, also a member of Dr Fazle Rabbi Smrity Parishad.