One of the first Indians to fight in Liberation War dies

Major (Retd) Parimal Kumar Ghosh, one of the first Indians to fight in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, has died at the age of 84.

He breathed his last in New Delhi yesterday and was cremated this morning, reports our New Delhi correspondent quoting Agomoni Ghosh, daughter of the deceased.

In 1971, Parimal Kumar Ghosh risked court martial by crossing the border to the then East Pakistan and reportedly helped set up the first group of Mukti Bahini,

He was first diagnosed with cancer in 1996 and battled the disease till the end, his daughter said.

Ghosh was born in January, 1939. He was commanding four border outposts (BOP) of BSF at Sreenagar, Amlighat, Samarendraganj, and Nalua in the southern part of Tripura bordering Chattogram division on March 26, 1971.

"At about 1400 hours, my East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) contact, Havildar Nuruddin came to Sreenagar BOP along with Prof Obaidullah Majumdar, a member of the National Assembly and Dr Amir Hussain, an Awami League leader, and they told us about the terror let loose by the Pakistan army personnel on villagers including women and children and asked for immediate intervention to dislodge them," Ghosh had stated in an article in BSF's magazine "Border Men".

Ghosh recalled that he had gone undercover with the assumed name of Prof Ali and accompanied them to investigate.

"At about 5:00pm in the afternoon, the first group of Mukti Bahini fighters with 6 EPR boys under the command of Havildar Nooruddin was formed. They took oath on the spot. Deployed them in groups of 3 each, on either flank of northern end of Shubhapur bridge with clear instructions to deny the entry of Pakistani soldiers in the village and water point and also to fire only one round at a time to conserve ammunitions and draw fire from Pakistani troops," Ghosh stated.

Returning to the Sreenagar BOP at about 7:00pm, Ghosh prepared a special report on the situation without mentioning his crossing over the international border.

"Next day [March 27] morning, Lt Col AK Ghose, my Commanding Officer (CO), visited our BOP and expressed his happiness and thanked me for my special report on the situation. I was hesitant but as a loyal soldier disclosed that I had crossed over to Shubhapur yesterday. Suddenly the attitude of my CO changed, [he] got angry and shouted at me - how could you dare to cross the international border? You might face court martial. He left in anger. I felt bad, but not sorry for my decision to stand by the ill-fated unarmed innocent civilians across the border," Ghosh mentioned in the article.

He said that on March 27, a heavy exchange of fire had erupted between the Mukti Bahini and Pakistani soldiers on the Shubhapur bridge. The enemy however ran short of food and ammunitions and in a demoralised state and surrendered to the Mukti Bahini next morning.

"This was our first victory. We hoisted the flag of Bangladesh over Shubhapur bridge in presence of large number of villagers, who shouted slogans like Jai Bangla, Jai Bangabandhu", he said.