M. A. G. Osmani
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Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani, better known by General M.A.G. Osmani (1 September 1918-16 February 1984) was the supreme commander of Mukti Bahini and Bangladesh Armed Forces during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
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[edit] Education
Osmani was born in Dayamir, Sylhet District on 1 September 1918. He graduated from Sylhet Government High School in 1934. Later, he studied in Aligarh Muslim University, India.
[edit] Early career
In 1939, Osmani started his military career as a Gentleman Cadet in the Indian Military Academy. Upon finishing his training at the IMA, he joined the Indian Army as a commissioned officer in 1940, when the World War 2 was going on. He served in the Burma sector and was promoted to a Major in 1942. Following the war and the Partition of India in 1947, Osmani joined the Pakistan Army on 7 October 1947, and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He served as an aide to the Chief of General Staff in 1949. Later, he served the 9th battalion of the 14th Punjab Regiment, additional commandant of the East Pakistan Rifles, and general staff officer of the army. Osmani was promoted to a Colonel in 1956 and held the post of deputy director of general staff and military operations. He retired from Pakistan Armed Forces on 16 February 1967.
[edit] Entry into politics
After his retirement, Osmani entered the politics of East Pakistan. He joined the Sheikh Mujib-led Awami League in 1970. As a candidate from Awami League, he was elected a member of the Pakistan national assembly in the 1970 elections in Pakistan. After the commencement of Bangladesh Liberation War, Osmani became a member of the provisional government-in-exile.
[edit] Leadership during Bangladesh Liberation War
With the formation of Mujib's government on 17 April 1971, Osmani was appointed commander in chief of all Bangladesh Armed Forces. Under his direct command, Osmani divided up the entire declared Bangladesh territory to 11 sectors. Each sector was under the command of a trained military officer with the title of Sector Commander. Each sector also had sub-sectors with sub sector commanders.
[edit] Post-indpendence activities
After the country's independence, Osmani was elevated to the rank of General of the Bangladesh Armed Forces with effect from the date of 16 December 1971. With the abolition of the post of Commander in Chief on 7 April 1972, Osmany retired from service. He was then included in the cabinet of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as Minister of Shipping, Inland Water Transport and Aviation. Osmani was elected a member of the national parliament in 1973, and was included in the new cabinet with charge of the ministries of Post, Telegraph and Telephone, Communication, Shipping, Inland Water Transport and Aviation. He resigned from the cabinet in May 1974. After the introduction of one-party system of government through the Fourth Amendment to the constitution in 1975, he resigned from Parliament and also from the primary membership of the Awami League.
MAG Osmani was appointed an Adviser to the President in charge of Defence Affairs by Khondaker Mostaq Ahmed (then President and Law Minister currently) on 29 August 1975. But he resigned immediately after the killing of four national leaders inside the Dhaka Central Jail on 3 November.
[edit] The Jatiya Janata Party
Osmani launched a new political party styled as Jatiya Janata Party in September 1976 and was elected its President. He contested in the presidential elections in 1978 as a nominee of the Democratic Alliance. He contested in the presidential elections once again in 1981 as a nominee of the Jatiya Nagarik Committee (National Citizens Committee).
[edit] Family Life
All his life Osmani lived as a bachelor and had no offspring who exist today. His home in the Nayarpul locality of the north-eastern city of Sylhet, from where he hails, is currently in ruins. The Government has claimed it as its official territory.
But though a bachelor all his life, Osmani was close to his relatives and family throughout his life. Most trips to Sylhet involved making visits to his loved ones, and in Dhaka he would regularly welcome nephews and nieces to his residence. Within the wider family Osmani was known for his love, but also for his temper, his passion, his glaring eyes and his military discipline. Only his alsatians were generally disliked, and almost universally feared by visiting folk. Famously one niece was bitten when she tried to run away from one of the Osmani alsatians.
Osmani left no heirs but his imprint and impact live on in his wider family, two generations after his death.
[edit] Death
In 1983, aged 65, Osmani was diagnosed with cancer at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka. Immediately he was flown to London for treatment, at the Government's expense. He was attended to by specialists at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Most of his time in the UK was spent staying at the family home of his nephew and niece, Mashahid Ali and Sabequa Chowdhury. Both were beloved to him - Mashahid (Shahee) had helped Osmani in his later years by funding the establishment of his political party, the Jatiya Janata Party, following Osmani's exit from the Mujib government. Sabequa spent some of her childhood in Osmani's home in Sylhet, and Osmani gifted his allocated plot in Dhaka in the early 1970s. Osmani's days would pass with an almost endless stream of visitors, well wishers and acolytes calling on him to wish him well, to ask his guidance, or just to see him.
Though Osmani was responding favourably to the cancer treatment, in early February he deteriorated unexpectedly. The hospital diagnosed that he had been given the wrong type of blood at the CMH and that this was now infected. His demise followed immediately after, in bed on 16 February 1984 in London, aged 66. Throughout these months of treatment and convalescence, the famous fire in his eyes and the quiver in his bristly moustache stayed with him till the very end.
Following his sudden death, Osmani's body was flown to Bangladesh. The cavalcade of cars to Heathrow was provided a special police escort which with full diplomatic protocol sped the entourage through the streets of London, stopping the traffic along the route. About a week after his death Osmani was buried in Darga, Sylhet with full military honours. His grave lies adjacent to his mother's.
[edit] Remembrance
Mohammed Ataul Ghani Osmani is currently revered as one of the greatest freedom fighters of the nation, a brave man never afraid of laying down his life. The international airport in his hometown of Sylhet has been named after him as Osmani Antorjatik Biman Bondor (Osmani International Airport - Sylhet). Even the state-run hospital in Sylhet, is named after him as Osmani Hospital. Also a small flock of tourists and local visitors flock to his dilapitated home in Dayamir, Sylhet to have a decent picnic on the huge lawn, a swim in the vast pond dug by himself, or just to admire the dilapitated house thet gave rise to one of the country's greatest sons.
