It was Newsweek or was it Time? Lt Ataullah Shah couldn’t recall
What he did recall were smiling faces and a caption that read ‘Bengali rebels displaying severed head of a federal soldier’
Ata instantly recognized him, he wasn’t a soldier
A West Pakistani civil servant who had refused army’s protection, who thought he was safe among ‘his people’
An army commander who thought a few rebels were no match to his strength
_
This is a story of gross miscalculation, of enormous consequence
This is the story of Kushtia
A story by Dan Coggins titled ‘Battle of Kushtia’ appeared in Time Apr 19, 1971 issue
It photographed West Pakistani prisoners in Kushtia district jail
The 13 men captured at radio station by Bengali militia were the only survivors of 155 strong company plus strength of 27 Baloch
On 25 Mar as part of Operation Searchlight, Delta Company of 27 Baloch under Maj Shoaib arrived in Kushtia by 2330
It also had men from Alpha Company under Major Aslam
A force of 155 men ready to disarm and take control of this silent town of paddy fields on the banks of Ganges
In a swift move into the night Capt Samad & Lt Ataullah with a platoon took control of Police Lines, Maj Aslam’s platoon was at Telephone Exchange and N/Sub Ayub with 14 men took control of Radio Station
There was no one to be disarmed, local police had already deserted the lines
On the morning of 29 Mar as curfew was relaxed the people of Kusthia were seen leaving the area
In what is termed as a “Silent Human Exodus” by Sharmila Bose, they were abandoning the town
With a blithe indifference to the inquisitive soldiers they disappeared on the horizon
The same evening DC Kushtia visited 27 Baloch Company HQ and informed that people were leaving as they were warned by rebels not to take sides and that there was a report of imminent attack on Kushtia
Maj Shoaib taking this sitrep by Naseem Waqar lightly was to prove disastrous
Away from Kusthia in the border town of Chuadanga, Maj Abu Osman of 4 Wing EPR organized the platoon for the battle
They were joined by the deserters of Kushtia Police Lines
Over 600 strong with small arms to mortars this force was all set to attack Kushtia on ni 29/30 Mar
The real game changer were local peasants carrying their traditional tools as arms joining this attacking force swelling the numbers to five thousand
On that fateful ni of Mar 30th in an enveloping attack on Kushtia from all directions one soldier of 27 Baloch faced 32 rebels
By the morning of Mar 30 the haggard and tattered platoons from Police Lines and Telephone Exchange retreated to Company HQ
There was no news of NSub Ayub’s section at the Radio Station
With reinforcements and air support denied, Maj Shoaib with these 70 men planned a withdrawal
With bridges demolished all routes out of Kushtia were compromised by rebels
Just outside Kushtia the remnants of 27 Baloch fell prey to an ambush
With Maj Shoaib and Aslam both killed in the cross fire the others ran for their lives, were caught by rebels and hacked to death
The picture of prisoners from Dan Coggin’s report on Kusthia we covered in the beginning of this thread were the only survivors of 27 Baloch This was NSub Ayub’s section at the Radio Station beside Mohni Bridge The EPR detachment that attacked them was led by Sub Muniruzzaman
Sub Maniruzzaman’s fight didn’t end in Kuhstia He later fought in Boyra sub-sector of Mukti Bahini’s Sector 8 On 27 Jun 1971, fighting Pak Army troops in a jungle outside the town of Kashipur our Subedar breathed his last He was awarded Bangladesh’s gallantry award Bir Bikrom
There’s more to our story Away from the survivors of Ayub’s section at Radio Station, there was Lt Ataullah Shah who survived the ambush outside Kushtia Sharmila Bose for her book Dead Reckoning had interviewed Ataullah in Pakistan
Our Lieutenant recollects that he was picked up by rebels and brought to Jhenida Police Station
On his way he saw Capt Samad Ali overpowered and being slaughtered by rebels
In Jhenida PS he would meet more soldiers of 27 Baloch almost all critically injured
In what would be the last round of their misery a vehicle would take them back to Jhenida jungle throwing away one soldier at a time in front of awaiting rebels who would put a miserable end to their suffering
Ataullah was resilient and lucky enough to survive this onslaught
Changing hands he would find himself a POW with Indian Army
There in a prison in Calcutta (present day Kolkata) he came across that article where he saw rebels holding the severed head of Naseem Waqar
The DC of Kushtia who came to warn Maj Shoaib that fateful evening of 29th Mar
He had laughingly declined an offer of protection from Maj Shoaib
‘They are my people’, Waqar had said
Dan Coggin’s report in Time tells us of one Nassim Waquer, a 29-year-old Punjabi, the assistant deputy commissioner at Kushtia
“When an angry mob found his body , they dragged
The severed head in the picture is not of a federal soldier. It’s our Waqar
Naseem Waqar, whom the PAS website mentions on their honour roll
The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kushtia who embraced martyrdom ‘allegedly’ at the hands Mukti Bahini rebels in erstwhile East Pakistan
kāñToñ kī zabāñ suukh ga.ī pyaas se yā rab
ik ābla-pā vādi-e-pur-ḳhār meñ aave
___
علامہ اقبال يا اکبر علی ايم اے اصل رہبر کون؟
کسی بھی قوم کا اصل رہبر کون ہوتا ہے خواب بیچنے والا شاعر يا حقیقت کو سامنے رکھ کر عملیت...