BRAHMANBARIA, Feb 17, 2021 (BSS)- In the early hours of independence an army mutiny took place in Brahmanbaria on March 26, 1971.
On 26 March our Independence Day, what was the situation on that day in Brahmanbaria in 1971. What happened on that day? There was also another company whose commander was a West Pakistani senior Major Sadeque Newaz.
In Brahmanbaria, two companies took up position in a tent adjacent to the Datiyara Wapda Colony. Major Jamil feared that the two companies would be forcefed to surrender their weapons by the West Pakistanis in an attack.
To prevent this possible attack, he instructed v his company and Sadeq Nawaz’s company to dig trenches around the camp in self-defense.
On the evening of March 25, instructions came from Cumilla that more people would come and arrange for their accommodation and food. Major Jamil did not know who was coming.
At eight o’clock in the night Lt. Col. Malik Khizir Hayat Khan arrived in Brahmanbaria with the rest of the companies of the 4th Bengal Regiment from Cumilla.
Martial law was enacted in the country on March 26 and evening law was enacted in Brahmanbaria. Khizir Hayat Khan instructed to Major Jamil to go to the police line and unarm them, but he managed to avoid it.
On March 26 at around 12 noon, 4th Bengal signal JCO Naib Subedar Zaher informed Major Jamil that he had heard the conversation between the two stations on the wireless. He looked very worried and anxious.
The Bengali junior officers also got very excited after receiving all these messages. Going to the signal set, 4th Bengal Senior Major Khaled Mosharraf, stationed at Samsher nagar, was informed of the situation and asked to return to Brahmanbaria. Major Khaled said that he was waiting for night.
On the evening of March 26, the Bengali junior officers of the 4th Bengal became more agitated and enraged when they heard Yahya Khan’s address over radio . In the meantime, ordinary soldiers were pressuring them to revolt.
On 27 March at around 7 am, Major Jamil sent Lt. Akhtar to Sadeq Nawaz’s room and removed his gun and 8 magazines in Sadeq Nawaz’s absence. .
While sitting at the breakfast table at 7:20 in the morning, a JCO told Khizir Hayat Khan that there was a little monogamy in Sadeq Newaz’s company and Khizir Hayat should go to Sadeq Newaz’s company immediately.
As soon as he heard this, when Khizir Hayat Khan was about to go to Sadeq Newaz’s company, Major Jamil tactfully restrained him and said that it would not be right to go like this without knowing the situation.
First everyone went to the office which was built in a tent. As soon as the three West Pakistani officers entered the tent, Lt. Kabir and Lt. Harun stood on either side of the tent and declared their allegiance to the Bangladesh government and flew the Bangladeshi flag, telling the Pakistani officers that they were being held captive by Bengali officers.
That 12 to 15 West Pakistani soldiers with the 4th Bengal were captured and kept in one place. The revolt ended without bloodshed.
Almost all the companies of the 4th Bengal Regiment jumped into the war of liberation with all their weapons, ammunition, vehicles and supplies.
On March 27 around 10 am, about 10 to 15 thousand joyous people came to the camp of 4th Bengal and greeted the Bengali army with the sound of ‘Joy Bangla’.
Major Khaled Musharraf reached Brahmanbaria with his company at 2.30 pm. As soon as he arrived, he took charge of the 4th Bengal regiment and freed the zone of Brahmanbaria.
Thus began the activities of the War of Liberation in the Brahmanbaria region.