Dear Sir, I appreciate and thank you for your article. You clearly stated that Siraj Sikder was a Maoist and Noxalities. I would like to add that he fought against the liberation war and killed many freedom fighters. He was no different than a Pakistani soldier who killed, tortured and raped my people during the liberation war. Siraj Shikder should have been brought to justice. I believe, document will show that a number of army officers including late Gen. Shawkat, Sisu and others supported Zia for killing Col. Taher. However, it was Zia who killed Taher. What was the role of Gen. Ershad at that time? It would be very interesting to know. Though Col. Taher's killing was unfolded, I would like to hear more about Gen. Manjoor's death and the reason behind it. Was Manjoor thep planner/ killer of Zia? I think, all the evidences would show that Majoor was not a planner or killer. He was removed by Gen. Ershad to paved his way to power. It is the right time to unfold real reasons behind the killing of one of the most brilliant officers in the Army, Gen. Manjoor. Thanks.
Regards,
Jamir Chowdhury
Professor and Director
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On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 6:32 AM, Abdul Mannan <abman1971@gmail.com> wrote:
My fortnightly column appears in today's Daily Sun. It is on Col (retd) Taher. It s copied below.
Thanks.
Todays NewspaperEditorialFeatureePaper
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Abdul Mannan
To the present generation the name Shiraj Shikder may be unknown. Late Shiraj Shikder was a believer of extreme ultra leftist political ideology in the mid sixties and propagated the philosophy that revolution is only possible through the uprising of the proletariats and physical annihilation of bourgeoisie (class enemy). Only proletariats have the right to rule. China's Chairman Mao Tze Tung was their friend philosopher and guide and they declared Chairman Mao as their Chairman. The violent politics of Shiraj Sikder and his party Purbo Banglar Shorbohara (Proletariat) Party was heavily influenced by Communist Part of India (Marxist-Leninist) founded in the Naxalbari of Darjeeling district in North Bengal, India by Charu Majumder, Kanu Sanyal and others. Killing of land owners, money lenders, government and police officials became rampant in the mid sixties and early seventies in Midnapur, West Dinajpur, Bihar, Darjeeling and adjoining areas. The wave of brutal violence crossed the border and entered the then East Pakistan with the active patronage and participation of Shiraj Shikder and his party (later the party split into many factions). Even to this day some of the activist of the party still operates in and around Kushtia, Jessore, Pabna and Khulna in many different names (Maobadi, Jonojuddho, Lalpotaka, etc). In India they exist in the name of Naxalites, Maobadi, Peoples War Group and their activities have gone beyond North or West Bengal to Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jamshedpur, MP. They are all into killing, extortion, arson, kidnapping for ransom all over.
Immediately after the Liberation of Bangladesh it was expected that the anti people activities of Shiraj Shikder will cease, which did not. His comrade in arms, Abdul Matin and Alauddin even waged armed war against the Bangladesh army in Atrai of Pabna district of 1973. Abdul Hoque, another cohort of Shiraj Shikder on December 16, 1974 wrote a letter to the President of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, addressing him as 'My President' requesting him to give him arms and money to topple the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Finally Shiraj Shikder was arrested by the police from Halishahar in Chittagong in December 1974, and when he was being taken from Dhaka to Savar he was killed by police while he was escaping according to the police press note. Whatever were the circumstances, the fact was this was an act of extrajudicial killing as he died in police custody, and as in the case of any other extrajudicial killing, it is a condemnable offence and any one can go to the court of law asking for justice.
The background of the cold blooded murder of our valiant Freedom Fighter Col Taher was totally different. The entire family of Col. Taher participated in our War of Liberation. During the war one of his legs was blown off by the enemy shell. After the war was over he remained in the army and was posted in Comilla. He had his own dream of replacing the conventional army of Bangladesh with a more productive 'People's Army.' He dreamt of changing the structure of the army. May be his philosophy had merit but the process was not proper as it was neither practical nor feasible to change the fundamental nature of the army of a country by one person's singular idea and philosophy. He soon realized this would perhaps not be possible and took an early retirement towards the end of 1972 and joined as a Director of Dredging Corporation of Bangladesh, a government undertaking. Soon he got inducted into JSD politics.
JSD was the first opposition party formed in Bangladesh with the slogan of establishing 'Scientific Socialism' in Bangladesh. Rightly or wrongly they thought the emancipation of the people will only be possible through establishing the rule of 'Scientific Socialism.' To begin with, first Chatra League split in 1972 on the eve of DUCSU election into two. One faction was called 'Mujibadi' SL and the other faction labeled themselves as 'Boigganik Shamajtontri.' Later JSD was formed by Sirajul Alam Khan and others. Whether it was the students' front or the main party, all front ranking party leaders came from Awami League. Later some retired military personnel joined the party and its rank and file swelled. It was able to attract many promising youths. This was a time when the world was witnessing a sudden rise and success of socialism in many countries. America lost the Vietnam War. Marxist Salvador Allende was elected the President of Chile. India became closer to former Soviet Union and the Non Aligned Movement became stronger. Bangladesh adopted 'socialism' as one of its state principles. The slain Marxist Revolutionary Che Guevara became a hero of the young generation. It was 'Marxism and Socialism' all the way. But unfortunately JSD politics could not make much headway because of short sighted leadership and other reasons. AL was too big and strong a party to challenge. In hindsight the young people who joined this brand of politics were at best 'Romantic Revolutionaries.' But with all fairness the initial years of JSD was quite promising.
Though personally not a believer of JSD politics I always thought the hanging of Taher in 1976 was pure and simple pre-meditated cold blooded murder. In 1980 I had the chance of reading the American journalist Lawrence Lifschultz's book 'Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution.' The book published in London the previous year was immediately proscribed in Bangladesh by Zia Government. After reading the book, my personal respect for Col Taher increased manifold. To me he became an ultimate example of a true patriot. In 2008, while attending an International Conference on Bangladesh at Harvard University I happened to meet Mr. Lifschultz personally. He attended a session which I presided, came and introduced himself. We spent about an hour taking about different aspects of Bangladesh politics and the coming general election. Soon we started calling each other by our first names and he informed that he planned to write the sequel of his original book and for that he might come to Bangladesh. However he came to Bangladesh to give testimony to the events prevailing at the time of trial of Col Taher. During 1976 he came to Dhaka from Delhi to cover the trial for now defunct weekly 'Far Eastern Economic Review.' Mr. Lifschultz is a real professional, courageous and extremely responsible journalist.
After the brutal assassination of Bangabandu on 15 August 1975, and the four national leaders in the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3 1975, the country virtually did not have a functioning government from 3 to 7 November and there existed no chain of command in the Army. The country was heading towards a total chaos. Brig. Khaled Musharraf tried to restore the chain of command along with some officers loyal to him but failed due to inept handling of the events and lack of farsightedness. Eventually they were also killed. Unfortunately all killed were valiant Freedom Fighters of 1971. In a total confusion prevailing in the country and the Dhaka Cantonment Zia was taken hostage by soldiers, some of them believed to be indoctrinated by JSD politics. Whatever was the situation, it was very confusing. Zia called his friend Col Taher to save his life. Taher responded, came and convinced the soldiers and freed Zia, who in turn thanked Taher for saving his life. But Zia was very clever, shrewd and to some extent a futurist. He could feel that Col. Taher though no longer in the army was still quite popular among the troops. Zia had Taher arrested on November 24 from his residence in Dhaka. On June 14, 1976 he had the Chief Martial Law Administrator and President Justice ASM Sayem promulgate an Ordinance to constitute a Special Tribunal to try Col Taher for mutiny and treason in the army. Along with Taher 32 others were also charged of whom 18 were serving army personnel and the rest were civilians. Though the trial was named as State vs Major (Retd) Jalil and others, from the very beginning it was clear that the main target was Col. Taher. The trial was in camera, the accused were not allowed to talk to their defense lawyers, except on the day of hearing and everyone had to take an oath of secrecy. Only Daily Ittefaq ran news of the commencing of the trial on June 21. The Editor Mr. Anwar Hossain was summoned by Army HQ and warned. The trial ended on July 12 covering 12 working days. This was a summary trial by all definition. On 17 July Col Yousuf Haider, the Chief of the Tribunal announced the judgment sentencing Col. Taher to death and others to different terms of imprisonment. Col. Haider was one of those Bengali officers in the Pakistan Army who in spite of being in Bangladesh in March 1971 did not think it necessary to fight in the War of Liberation. Col. Taher' death sentence came as a surprise even to the State Prosecutors as they never appealed for death sentence as the law under which Col Taher and other's were being tried did not have provision for death sentence. However this anomaly was amended ten days after Col Taher was hanged on the morning of 21. July only after nine days of the pronouncement of the judgment. Usually there is a gap of 21 days between verdict and execution. Even this was not followed in the case of Col Taher. During Zia's regime many such rules were flouted. He ran the Presidential election while being in service, and promoted himself after his retirement. Many BNP leaders say that Taher was responsible for killing of sixty army officers. However he was never tried for this alleged involvement in these killings, but tried for mutiny and treason.
The recent trial of Col. Taher's leading to 'judicial' murder was a landmark in our history. Taher will not return but his memory will live forever and hopefully it will haunt those who were responsible for such a cowardly act. Long live the memory of Col Taher, Bir Uttam.
The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor of Chittagong University.
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