By Rumana Jaman

DHAKA, Mar 25, 2025 (BSS) - BNP Secretary General and valiant freedom fighter Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said a bloodstained struggle for freedom of the people of a country can never fail.

"The struggle for freedom of the people of a country never fails. We also feel that the Liberation War, as a people's war, will never fail," he told BSS in an exclusive interview on the eve of the Independence Day.

"Due to my active participation in this war, my family members thought that I might not return alive. But I never felt like that. We were always very optimistic - it might take a long time, but Bangladesh will definitely be independent," added Mirza Fakhrul.

Asked whether they got the country they wanted and for which they had fought the war, he said, "No, we did not get the Bangladesh we fought for. We were fighting for the country not only from March 26, but also from much before. Since then, we had been dreaming that a social system without discrimination and exploitation would be established. But today we are not in that place."

Revisiting the memory lane of his role during the Liberation War, he said, "When the Liberation War started, I had just passed my Masters. I was 25 or 26 years old. I was in Thakurgaon then. After the crackdown, there was a BDR (EPR) commander in Thakurgaon who was a West Pakistani. Most of the rest were Bengalis.

After the night of the 25th March, the BDR imposed a curfew there. At that time, lakhs of people came out on the streets.

The firing started from the morning of the 25th March. Three or four people were martyred in the firing. Then everyone went underground. We were involved in the pre-liberation movement in the then Thakurgaon Mahakuma.

We also went underground and took shelter in a house. Then we came to know that resistance had started in different districts of the country."

He said on the night of the 26th, they first heard Ziaur Rahman's announcement (of independence). On the 27th, they heard the full announcement.

"Hearing this, we all came out on the streets. We also started calling people to come out. Then we went to the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) there and told him to open the locker where were their arms. After opening it, we took some arms from there.

Later, a portion of the BDR rebelled. They also took shelter with us in the same place. With their cooperation, we cut the bridge that came from the highway road coming from Saidpur towards Thakurgaon so that the Pakistani army could not come from Saidpur.

Towards dawn, a part of the Bengal Regiment came. The name of the officer of the Bengal Regiment at that time was Captain Nasser. Later, he became the NSI Chief during the tenure of Major Ziaur Rahman."

Mirza Fakhrul said that a command was formed under the leadership of the then BDR commander of Dinajpur, Major Nazrul and they also took some defensive measures with various weapons.

"At that time, we established a 'control room' in Thakurgaon city. Arms training for the Liberation War was also arranged.

On April 14, the Pak Army got organized at Syedpur and started counter-shelling. They started attacking the entire Dinajpur with mortar shells. When too many shells started falling, our headquarters was destroyed.

The Bengal Regiment of the PDR left Thakurgaon and went to the Panchagarh border. The place is very close to the Indian border. Everyone started taking shelter there.

But we did not find shelter there, we crossed the Nagar River through the Thukrabari border next to us and went to India. My entire family also went to India. That is, we who were preparing for the Liberation War all went to that side."

The BNP Secretary General said, "We went there and took shelter with our acquaintances. We took shelter in a subdivision called Islampur town in West Dinajpur.

There, I lived in a bicycle store called Dilip's Cycle Store. We met this Dilip during the war. He gave us a place to stay. I used to stay at night in a small place behind the almirah of his bicycle store with great difficulty.

The place was so small that I could barely put my head down. Seven people, including my uncle Bablu Mirza, lived there."

 He said, "We then tried to find out if we could get cooperation from India to set up a youth camp for training freedom fighters. Later, the West Bengal government shifted us to Islampur High School.

Later, we stayed there. We organized youth camps at the border. At one time, when I contacted Bihar's Chief Minister, Furpuri Thakur, he made arrangements for us to do some more youth training. They also gave us the necessary clothes to wear.

 After that, a few youth camps were formed. One camp in the border area was called Thukrabari Youth Camp. Training started this camp under the leadership of Indian BSF camp commander Subhash. When it gradually became more organized, the Central Government of India joined.

They arranged training in different places. Especially later, they arranged training in the Dehradun area. We recruited our boys there. We ourselves coordinated, we basically played the role of organizers."

"That's what we did. After that, the Bangladesh Liberation Force was formed. They started recruitment. We worked in that way."

The BNP Secretary General said March 26 was basically the beginning and the declaration of independence by Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman made us jump into the war of independence.

"Not only we, but all the people of the country jumped into the war of independence. Yet in the last 15 years, Ziaur Rahman's declaration of independence was denied. 'But that is the reality'.

Not just my words. Everyone who was there at that time knows this. True history can never be erased," he said.

Mirza Fakhrul said, Sheikh Mujib was captured and handed over to the Pakistanis in 'Sense of Direction'.

"The leaders of the Awami League first went to India. They could not provide any leadership in the beginning. Even after going to India, they took the lead much later and started the organizational work of the liberation war.

At that time, we who were active in left politics faced another big danger. The Awami League did not want to 'own' us. The Indian intelligence forces arrested many of our people. Even I had to go to the police station many times to appear.

That is why we, left organizations, formed a front under the leadership of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani. There, Akbar Khan Rano, Rashed Khan Menon, Kazi Zafar Ahmed all started the work of the Liberation War under the banner of that front."

Asked about his response over the then continuous blaming of ruling Awami League during its 15-year rule till August 5 that Fakhrul's father was a Razakar (collaborator of Pakistan army), Mirza Fakhrul ruled out the claim, saying his father was a Muslim League member before 1947 and later he joined the BNP.

"My father was a very progressive man. He was never a reactionary person. With his hands, girls' schools and colleges were built in Thakurgaon. He was a very popular person. He was the chairman of the municipality for about 25 years.

He was a member of parliament (MP). After the 1971 war, he was in Islampur, India. We took him with us. So, there can be no question of him being a Razakar. There is no chance of my father being a Razakar. There is no evidence of this."

Asked which issue he finds most challenging during the war, the freedom fighter said, "We faced the most critical challenges when the Indian authorities and the Awami League leadership started considering us enemies because we were involved in leftist politics.

They tried their best to prevent us from getting involved in the Liberation War and tried to put us in danger in any way. It was really a big challenge to work avoiding these issues because the Awami League could never accept us during the entire Liberation War."