Name: Ayubur Rahman
Father’s
name: Late Aftabuddin Mondol
Vill: Mirzapur,
P.S.: Birampur, Dist.: Dinajpur
Educational
qualification: B.A.
Age in 1971:
20/21 yrs
Occupation in
1971: Student
Present Occupation:
Unemployed
Q.
What do you know about the general elections of 1970 and subsequent
events?
A.
At that time I was a student of the
Q.
Why did you do that?
A.
The Biharis
started driving the Bengalis out. They started riots. So I left for home. They
used to catch young boys and kill them. The Biharis looked for me also. They
even enquired about me at my village home. Naturally I was afraid of them. So I
left home and walked about 5/6 miles to one of my aunt’s house. I stayed there
for a few days and then I returned home. After I reached home some of us
gathered on the steps of our home pond and recited holy verse ‘doa yunus’ to protect ourselves
from danger. It was a Friday. The Biharis took a special train and came to our village and
started setting fire to our homesteads. On seeing this I again ran to my aunt’s
village. This is how we spent our time in those days.
Q.
In 1971 were you ever attacked by the
A. Not in the beginning. Later
on when I took part in an operation against the army as a member of the Muktibahini I was attacked.
Q. How did it happen?
A. Subedar Shahidullah one day told
me that I would have to go into action. I would have to snap the telephone line
which runs along the railway track and connects Dinajpur
with Fulbari, and bring back the cable. A team was
formed for this task with some others and I was one of them. I went with this
team to cut the wires.
Q.
Which was this area?
A. It is near the culvert halfway between Kanchpur and Mohonpur.
Q. Is
it halfway between Dinajur and Mohonpur?
A.
Yes. We fixed explosives on the bridge which is halfway in between, and then
destroyed the bridge. I just made a little mistake. I returned to see how much
damage was done to the bridge and I got caught in the middle of an attack by
the Pak army. Thus I was about to be
captured by them.
Q. Did the Pakistani army attack you?
A.
Yes. But before that we snapped about 100 ft of the wire. I had a stengun with me, the others had
rifles and grenades. At night there was lightening all around, and we got
soaked in drizzling rain. When I returned to the bridge about 20 ft away, some
one screamed ‘halt’ and then came a hail of bullets from all around. My
comrades ran away without firing a single shot. I jumped on the south side. My
comrades left me and ran for cover chased by the Khan senas (Pak
troops). They thought that all the muktisenas had escaped. They had not thought that I was hit
by a bullet and I fell down on the ground. They didn’t even see me. God had
given me a long life and perhaps that is why they didn’t see me. When I realized that there were no one around
me and there was pindrop silence, I slowly made for
the open field covered with tall grass. I had the stengun
with me with eight rounds of ammunition and pliers for cutting wire, and of
course the training. I couldn’t afford to get caught by the Pak army. If they could get me they
would torture me more than anything else. Leaving the pliers on the ground I
started crawling forward with my left hand and holding the stengun
in my right. I was getting hurt by sharp ends of grass. Once I thought I was
being bitten by leech. Once my hand got into a hole in the ground, I became
scared of land mines, or was it a snake’s burrow? Soon I got my senses; if God
will save me who else can hurt me. Let me try. If I went to the south I could
reach
Q. What was the name of the
village?
A. I don’t remember the name. I
think the village was close to Uchitpur, somewhat in
between Panchpara and Uchitpur.
I saw a house in front of me. I entered the house and found that it was very
badly damaged. I went to another house. I could sense that there were some
people inside the house. I gathered some courage and then spoke aloud and asked
for someone to come out. I said that I was a freedom fighter and I was hit by a
bullet. I needed help badly. I saw three men were looking at me from behind a
window. I requested two of them to come
out and help me. They came out. I told one of them to help me. He held my left
hand and I had the stengun in my right hand. I
quickly sensed that they wouldn’t hurt me. I could sense that they had sympathy
for me. And they took me to where I wanted to go.
Q.
Where did they take you?
A The refugee camp was on the
other side of the border. When I reached the camp, the whole camp rushed to see
me. And then they made an improvised stretcher and transported me to the Mollardighi hospital. I was given first aid and then they
reached me to the camp.
Q.
Were you treated in the camp?
A.
Yes, I was given treatment in the muktijodhha camp. Dr. Qayyum of Phulbari and another
Kashmiri lady doctor gave me treatment.
Q.
How long did it take you to get well?
A.
Almost a month, may be a little more.
Q.
And then what did you do?
A.
After I got well I joined operations again.
Q.
Why did you join the liberation war?
A.
There was only one reason, the Pakistanis created discrimination within
the country. They were exploiting us. We decided not to let them carry on their
oppression and exploitation on us. We Bengalis are a nation,
we wanted to live as a nation by ourselves. And then I saw the horrible sights
of killing, murder and rape. The Pakistanis raped one of our neighbors and then
they killed her. I couldn’t accept this terrible situation, so I became a
freedom fighter.
Q. When did the Pakistanis attack your area?
A. I don’t remember the date exactly. When the third
Q.
How did they attack you?
A.
To start with some Biharis came to the area by train and started setting fire
and then when more of them came in transports and began a reign of terror by
setting fire and raping women.
Q.
Did anyone of your family members become shaheed in the Pakistani attack?
A.
No. Through the grace of God none of my family was killed and our village
escaped unhurt. It happened because of two Bihari men. One of them was Ruhul Amin and the other was a doctor named Nurul
Huda who was a friend of my father. Ruhul Amin had received a bullet
injury the cause of which was not known to me. In the month of March Amin and Dr. Huda came to our
village and took shelter.
Q.
Did they take shelter in your village?
A.
Yes, they took shelter in our village. When the Biharis rushed to burn down our
village they were resisted by Amin and Dr. Huda. The Biharis were not allowed to do any mischief in our village.
Thus God saved our village.
Q. When did the Muktibahini activities begin in your locality?
A. After we returned receiving
training, we became active.
Q.
Were you the first to go into action?
A.
Yes, we were the first. There was no group before us. Lutfur, Rezaul Huq and I and a few others constituted the first batch of Muktibahini in
our locality.
Q.
What was people’s perception of the Muktibahini then?
A. The people were
overwhelmingly in favor of us. Otherwise it would not have been possible to
liberate the country. The villagers gave us shelter, they showed us the way to
go into hiding during emergencies, they cooperated
with us wholeheartedly. That is why it was possible for us to carry on.
Q.
Isn’t it true that some of them
were against you?
A. Yes, the Razakars,
the Al-Badrs
and others like them.
Q.
Who were the Razakars,
Al-Badrs in
your locality?
A.
There were many of them. What good it is to talk about them? We don’t want
to discuss this issue at this stage.
Q.
After independence or at that time were any of them apprehended?
A.
After independence one such fellow was arrested. He spent a good many
years in jail, and then he came out.
Q.
What happened to the others?
A. They went into hiding.
Perhaps they had gone to
Q. Those who
were caught, how did they get free?
A. As far as I have seen they
got free in exchange of money. None of them was acquitted by a trial court.
Q.
What were the areas you had fought during the liberation war?
A.
We were stationed in Anginabad. We had an
Indian Captain as our leader. During the nine months (of war) we had two
Captains. Their names were Salahuddin Sindbad and Ranjit. From
Q. Was this the first one?
A. No. This was not the first operation.
As far as I can remember it took place in June or July. The date was 18 or
perhaps 19 and the time was around 8 or 9 in the evening. Our action was in one
sector. And then when the Indian forces arrived then joint operation started.
This was perhaps the operations plan. At that time we were in Srirampur. We started operation around the nearby areas
destroying road communication, blasting bridges, cutting telephone lines,
carrying out sudden attacks on the enemy and such other actions. These kept us
busy and soon the country became independent.
Q. Where
did you take part in the most vicious battle?
A.
I was not the only one. Several of us participated in the fight for Khanpur.
Q . How
many muktijoddhas
were there?
A.
About 30 or so.
Q.
Were there Indian forces with you?
A.
The Indian forces were behind us to give us cover with 2 inch mortars.
But the Pakistanis were out of range of the mortars. They counter-attacked us
and we were forced to jump into a nearby river and take advantage of the strong
current towards south to save our lives.
Q. Were
you not able to inflict casualty on the Pakistanis?
A. No,
we were not. But we had mined one of the culverts and some Pakistanis died and
some lost their limbs because of it.
Q.
And what happened at Mohonpur?
A. I have already told you. Returning from Mohonpur we concentrated on guerrilla operations like once
we went to Boalia and raided the post office, union
office and brought all papers and documents with us. We also mined the main
road and snapped the telephone lines.
Q Did you take part in the fighting in Hilli?
A
No. We didn’t fight in Hilli.
But we stayed there for a few days as a part of the reserve-force. And then we
were transferred back.
Q. What did you see in your village when you returned after the war?
A. Our village home was not completely destroyed. Why our home was not
destroyed I have narrated before. Other homes were more or less destroyed. This
is just about the story everywhere after a war.
Q.
What was the condition of schools, colleges, madrashas, mosques etc?
A. These were more or less unhurt.
Q. What did you do with the arms after the war had ended?
A. All of our team returned the weapons to Capt. Shahriar.
Q. And then what did you do?
A. Since I had not completed my graduation I returned to the
Interviewer: Bhabendranath Barman.
Date of
Interview: November 18, 1996.
Translator: Dr. Faruq Aziz Khan
Source: History from Below, Centre for Research on
Liberation War of