Kader Siddiqui was born at 1948 in Tangail is one of the
most famous fighters and organizers of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Often
hailed as Bagha (Tiger) Kader or
Bongo Bir (Hero of Bengal),
Siddiqui has to be decorated as Bir Uttom (Great Hero) by the government of Bangladesh.
He organized and fought with an estimated 10,000-strong guerilla force 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, signalling the end of the war.
Involvement in massacres of prisoners of war
According to a report in The Times, Siddiqui's
guerillas 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 civilised
country'.
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. Siddiqui was subsequently
arrested by the Indian Army.
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 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'.
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
then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Mujibur Rahman.
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.
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