Abdul Kader Siddique

Abdul Kader Siddique (Bengali: আবদুল কাদের সিদ্দিকী, born 1948 in Tangail) often hailed as Bagha (Tiger) Kader or Bongo Bir (Hero of Bengal) is one of the most famous fighters and organizers of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Siddiqui has to be decorated as Bir Uttom by the government of Bangladesh. He organized and fought with an estimated 10,000-strong guerrilla force[1] in the Tangail region against the Pakistan Army. This army was called Kaderia Bahini (Kader's Army). At the end of the war, on December 16, Siddique's forces entered Dhaka along with the Indian forces,[2] signalling the end of the war.

Involvement in massacres of prisoners of war

According to a report in The Times, Siddiqui and his guerrillas beat up and subsequently bayoneted and shot to death a group of prisoners (who they claimed were Razakars) after a rally held near Dhaka Stadium on December 19, at which Siddiqui himself gave an hour-long speech. The prisoners were murdered after performing Islamic prayers together with their captors. According to the same source, shortly before murdering them, the Mukti Bahini soldiers promised the prisoners 'a fair trial, as in any civilized country'.[3]

Abdul Kader Siddiqui personally bayoneted three prisoners to death and the entire incident was filmed by foreign film crews whom Siddiqui invited to witness the spectacle.[4] Siddiqui was subsequently arrested by the Indian Army.[1]

Siddiqui discussed his involvement in the murders in an interview with Yasmin Saikia, the author of Women, War and Making Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. After describing an event in which Siddiqui shot a Mukti Bahini soldier for stealing a shawl from a Bengali civilian, Saikia states, referring to the Dhaka stadium incident, that 'at the time he did not think of his act as a crime against humanity, being swayed by the Bengali public sentiment for revenge. Today he knows that both the acts - killing a younger soldier for a petty theft and killing the Biharis (Mohajirs) for being different from the Bengalis - were public acts of violence disguised under the label of national morale to establish the power of the Bengalis and claim victory, but they were violent acts, nonetheless, and he is pained by his past'.[5]

Post-1971

After East Pakistan seceded from West Pakistan and became Bangladesh, Siddiqui went back to his home town of Tangail where he enjoyed considerable patronage from the Awami League, the party of Prime Minister Mujibur Rahman.[4]

After the assassination of Mujibur Rahman in 1975, Siddiqui and his followers organised attacks on the authorities of Khondakar Mushtaque's government. Elements loyal to Siddiqui operated from bases in Assam province in India and were actively supported by India's Border Security Force.[4]

Siddiqui was an MP in the parliament of Bangladesh. In March 2013, he accused the Bangladesh Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir of hypocrisy in domestic war crimes trials, calling him an ultra-Razakar. He stated, "The current Home Minister was an officer of the Pakistan Government. During the Liberation War...the Pakistan Army massacred people with the assistance of Dr Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir."[6]

Now he has a separate own party called Kirshak Shromik Janata League.

References

  1. 1 2 Brian May, "Indian Army Arrests 'Tiger of Tangail' After Dacca Bayoneting", The Times, December 21, 1971, pg. 4.
  2. ↑ Ahmed, Helal Uddin (2012). "Mukti Bahini". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  3. ↑ Stanhope, Henry (December 20, 1971). "Mukti Bahini Bayonet Prisoners After Prayers". The Times. London. p. 4. The leader of the Mukti Bahini ... took part, casually beating the prisoners with has swagger stick before borrowing a bayonet to lunge at one of the trussed-up men. The leader, Mr Abdul Qader Siddiqui, ... had only 10 minutes before promised the prisoners a fair trial 'as in any civilized country'. Mr Siddiqui ... had earlier haranged [sic] a crowd of 8,000 for nearly an hour ... The rally ended with Islamic prayers in which the prisoners ... joined their captors in offering praise to Allah ... First [the remains of the crowd] began beating up the prisoners, whom they dubbed razakars and who were bound like chickens ... Mr Saddiqui's Mukti guards ... fixed bayonets and charged at the prisoners ... They stabed [sic] them through the neck, the chest, the stomach. One of the guards, dismayed at having no bayonet, shot one of the prisoners in the stomach with his sten gun.
  4. 1 2 3 Lifschultz, Lawrence (1979). Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution. Zed Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-905762-07-X. Kader Siddiqui appalled both Bengalis and foreigners when, in public, shortly after the liberation of Dacca, he personally bayoneted three alleged collaborators to death. The entire incident was filmed from start to finish by foreign film crews whom he had invited to the spectacle. He returned to Tangail after independence and became the recipient of substantial Awami League patronage. Following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975, Siddiqui and his followers began to offer resistance to the post-coup authorities headed by Khondakar Mustaque. Elements identifying themselves with Siddiqui gradually withdrew to India and, with the active and direct assistance of the Indian Government's Border Security Force, set up training camps in the Assam border area.
  5. ↑ Saikia, Yasmin (2011). Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. Duke University Press. p. 257. ISBN 0-8223-5038-6.
  6. ↑ মহিউদ্দিন খান মহা-রাজাকার : কাদের সিদ্দিকী [Muhiuddin Khan is an ultra-Razakar:Kader Siddique]. Naya Diganta (in Bengali). March 1, 2013.
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