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Colonel Abu Osman Chowdhury, commander of Sector 8 of the Liberation War, died today at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka while in treatment. Also yesterday, the desire of his daughter was to take him to Singapore, ignoring the cooperation of the government, all the desire and the tireless effort of the doctors, today he left. He was in charge of the Chuadanga area of the EPR in 1971. On March 26, 1971, he rushed into the liberation struggle with a group of his subordinates. Although he was an army officer, he was a public friend.
Abu Osman Chowdhury was born on January 1, 1936 in the Madanergaon village of Faridganj upazila of Chandpur. While studying at Comilla Victoria College, he became involved in BCL politics. Later, after obtaining his bachelor’s degree from this college, he obtained a commission in the Pakistan Army in 1956. In April 1986, he was promoted to Major.
Abu Osman Chowdhury received the news at the Kushtia Circuit House on the night of March 25, 1971 when the brutal massacre by the Pakistani army, Operation Searchlight, began in Dhaka. At that time he was in charge of Chuadanga as commander of the fourth wing of the East Pakistan Rifles. The next morning, March 26, he arrived in Chuadanga from Kushtia and declared in rebellion and joined the liberation war with a group of his subordinates. Later he was given the responsibility of Commander of Sector 7 of the Liberation War in the southwestern part of the country. When the cabinet of the government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was formed at Baidyanathtala in Meherpur on April 17, Abu Osman Chowdhury presented an honor guard to the cabinet with a platoon of soldiers.
In 2014, Abu Osman Chowdhury received the Medal of Independence. His wife, Nazia Osman, has also worked bravely to provide food and drink, money and medicine to the families of freedom fighters on the battlefield, and to protect weapons and ammunition. In this case, Nazia Osman was an exception to the wives of other senior army officers who joined the liberation war. That is why Nazia Osman was also honored as a freedom fighter.
After the country became independent, Abu Osman Chowdhury was promoted to lieutenant colonel, Bangabandhu appointed him Director of the Army Service Corps (ASC). After Bangabandhu’s assassination on November 7, 1975, during a military coup led by Taher to free Zia from captivity, a group of members of the army attacked her home in Gulshan to assassinate Abu Osman Chowdhury. Although he survived that day because he was not at home, his wife Nazia Osman was murdered.
Abu Osman Chowdhury played an important role in the formation of popular courts to demand the trial of war criminals. He also held the position of Senior Vice President, Founder of the Sector Commanders Forum. When the Awami League government, led by Bangabandhu’s daughter, Deshratna Sheikh Hasina, came to power in 1996, Abu Osman Chowdhury was appointed president of the BJMC. Later, after the Awami League re-formed the government in 2009, the Honorable Prime Minister Deshratna Sheikh Hasina appointed him Administrator of the Chandpur District Council. Although he did not receive any heroic titles for his heroic contribution to the war of independence, the government awarded the Medal of Independence to Abu Osman Chowdhury in 2014.
What exactly caused him to be deprived of the title of hero even after first joining the liberation war and displaying special heroism in the Kushtia-Jhenaidah-Chuadanga region? I asked him this question in an intimate conversation. He avoided it because of the professionalism of the army personnel, but he also hinted at his cold relationship with General Shafiullah and AK Khandaker. It is clear that AK Khandaker, the chair of the award committee, was not happy with him.
Abu Osman Chowdhury was not only a 1971 battlefield fighter, he was our torchbearer guide in the liberation war dependent movement. He was always vocal to prevent distortion of the history of the liberation war. When AK Khandaker’s distorted book ‘1971: Inside Out’ was published in August 2014 and when the book was published on September 2, he was the first to protest among senior army personnel who joined the war of release. On September 4, 2014, he gave me a video statement at my request. Later in December of that year, my edited book “AK Khandaker’s 1971: Inside and Out” – The Debut of History Distortion was published on the AK Khandaker book counter. His statement was published in my book by transcribing that video. His video statement was widely circulated on social media at the time. I give the entirety of his statement to the reader:
“Some time ago, a book titled ‘1971: Inside Out’ was published by Air Vice Marshal (Retd.) AK Khandaker. I was not at the publishing festival, of course. What I saw the next morning showed that he (AK Khandaker) had distorted the story, knowingly or unknowingly. The biggest incident is the distortion of Bangabandhu’s speech on March 7. At the end of that speech, Bangabandhu said “Joy Bangla”. He ended his speech with ‘Joy Bangla’. But Khandaker Bhai wrote in his book that Bangabandhu ended his speech with ‘Joy Pakistan’. As soon as I heard this, it seemed strange to me. With Bangabandhu’s statement, nothing can come from Pakistan’s side. How did you write it? If you think it’s true, why haven’t you reported this incident that has been going on for forty-three years? When others accept the historical fact that ‘Joy Bangla’ was said at the end of the speech, why didn’t he (AK Khandaker) protest? He is now publishing a book informing everyone that Bangabandhu said ‘Joy Pakistan’ at the end of his speech on March 7th. I think the melody of Tareq Rahman (AK Khandaker) matches the story that he is distorting while sitting in London. This is very sad. He (AK Khandaker) knows why, why or why he’s doing it.
As far as I can remember, that day I saw in the newspaper that Sarwar Ali, an administrator of the Museum of the Liberation War, said: ‘Some parts of this book may give rise to controversy. However, the book will remove the imperfection that was in the history of the liberation war, even if there is a different opinion. Through this statement, he has not expressed himself either at home or outside, in the middle. Towards the end he clarified his position again, saying that some of the statements in the book did not seem acceptable to him.
Citing the example of saying ‘Joy Pakistan’ at the end of Bangabandhu’s speech on March 7 on page 32 of the book, he said: ‘We have two authentic documents so that these two words do not exist. So the idea is that the person who gave this information to Khandaker may not have given him the correct information. I would say that maybe he did not give correct information, he gave false information. He gave this false information for the purpose of distorting the story. Otherwise, why hasn’t he deceived us by identifying for so many years the fact that we have been accepting it as a historical fact through sight and hearing, which has been accepted both in Parliament and in the Constitution?
My book ‘This year’s fight is the fight for freedom’ was published on March 7, 1991. The main reason for publishing on March 7, I thought the March 7 speech was the last instruction or announcement from Bangabandhu . I think that speech that day was a lot like a diplomatic message. The Maidan Racecourse, now known as Suhrawardy Udyan, was closely monitored by the Pakistani government, which would have killed millions of people if it had declared its independence that day. Then the message would reach the people of the world that the Bengalis were the first to become aggressive and the Pakistanis resisted. But Bangabandhu didn’t want it and it wouldn’t be strategically right for us either. If we wanted to do that, we could have captured the Pakistani cantonment in a day or an hour. But in the whole world we did not get any support for it. Then we would get in more trouble. We were hoping to avoid this incident. I wanted the Pakistanis to get hurt first and then we would give our speech. According to him, Bangabandhu recorded the declaration of independence and decided that it would be broadcast every time the Pakistanis attacked us. And it turned out that the speech began airing as soon as the Pakistani attack began. The Pakistanis were also convinced of this. So today, forty-three years later, why does AK Khandaker publish these numbers in his book? It must make this lie about established truth clear to the nation and the world. Otherwise, everyone may demand that AK Khandaker apologize to the country and the nation. “(Reference: Edited by Rudra Saiful” AK Khandaker’s 1971: Inside and Out “- Deciphering the distortion of history”)
Some senior army officials involved in the liberation war were unhappy after Abu Osman Chowdhury’s statement protesting AK Khandaker’s distorted book. But Abu Osman Chowdhury was adamant in his statement. He expressed his firm position against the distortion of history due to an unshakeable trust in Bangabandhu and the liberation war.
Those of us who work with the liberation war are like our guardians. When I started working with the liberation war, I always received its direction at different times of crisis. He was the representative of eternal youth. It has always spawned the young researchers at Snehdor. While working in the liberation war, I received his immense affection, sometimes he would call me and look for me. I used to call him Nana. His death today has caused us a lot of damage. The gradual march of the artisans of the history of our identity during this period of coronation depresses us. The death of Abu Osman Chowdhury was a humble tribute to him.
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