Shafaat Jamil

Syed Badrul Ahsan

The passing of Colonel Shafaat Jamil brings to an end the life of yet one more heroic soldier in the war for national independence.

Jamil's finest hour came on November 3, 1975. There were, of course, all the moments of glory he lived through during the War of Liberation. The war and its conclusion were for Jamil and his fellow freedom fighters that particular dawn when the people of Bangladesh truly repudiated a sordid past as part of a communal dispensation and embraced a political philosophy that was as idealistic as it was secular. Post-1971, it was a dream of a democratic order that sustained Jamil and his fellow officers in the new nation's military structure.

But the crude assault on the state, through murder and mayhem on August 15, 1975, left an entire nation shaken to the core. The assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the bloody overthrow of his government were in essence a demonisation of politics in Bangladesh. The tragedy of the day came to be more pronounced because men like Jamil, taken by rude surprise by the action of the assassin-majors and colonels, were unable to strike back. For Jamil, it was a moment of humiliation, one that would stretch itself to early November of the year.

That the illegitimate regime of Khondokar Moshtaque needed to be evicted from the Bangabhaban, that the army needed to have its chain of command restored were thoughts that guided Brigadier Khaled Musharraf. Jamil, Shamsul Huda and Haider, all brilliant officers and brave freedom fighters, were only too willing to link up with the cerebral Musharraf in the cause of the republic.

Jamil, like his colleagues, was eminently qualified to do the job. Having joined the Pakistan army as a second lieutenant in 1964, he rose rather rapidly in rank and by March 1971 (and that was the moment for Bangalee nationalism to pave the path to freedom) he was holding the rank of a major in the Pakistan army. Before the month was out, Jamil was to become a rebel, part of the structure that would become the Mukti Bahini, and wage war against the Pakistan army in the defence of a free Bangladesh. He was wounded in the war but survived to fight newer battles.

Independent Bangladesh did not ignore his contribution. Awarded the Bir Bikram for gallantry in the war, Jamil rose to the ranks of lieutenant colonel and colonel, in that order, to head the 46 Infantry Brigade of the Bangladesh army at Dhaka cantonment. It was while he held that position that the assassin officers moved out of the cantonment and towards Bangabandhu's residence and the homes of other political figures in the pre-dawn hours of August 15, 1975.

For Jamil, the moment of decision arrived on November 3, 1975. He burst into a cabinet meeting being presided over by Moshtaque, demanding that the usurper and all his ministers resign. Moshtaque did and so did his ministers. The killer officers were thrown out of the Bangabhaban, where they had remained ensconced since Bangabandhu's murder, and put on a flight out of the country. Neither Jamil nor Khaled Musharraf knew, at that point, that the assassins had only hours earlier killed the four national leaders -- Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M Mansoor Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman -- in Dhaka central jail.

In the four days between November 3 and November 7, Musharraf, Huda, Haider and Jamil went to work restoring legitimacy in the corridors of power. Musharraf, having placed army chief Ziaur Rahman under detention, took charge of the army, his rank rising to major general. On November 6, Chief Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem was sworn in as Bangladesh's new president, his job specifically being one of organising fresh elections and restoring democracy.

But for Jamil and his fellow officers, the triumph was to be short-lived. Tragedy struck, in the form of a violent, ugly counter-coup at dawn on November 7. Musharraf, Haider and Huda were murdered brutally by soldiers loyal to Zia. Jamil was taken into custody by the new men in authority. He eventually emerged free, only to lapse into calculated oblivion. Cashiered from the army, he went into business.

One of Jamil's more invaluable contributions to history remains the account he leaves behind on the 1971 war and the tragic events of 1975. He called it '71 Independence War, Bloody Mid-August and November Conspiracy.

Let the bugles sound for a true hero of Bangladesh. In life, he was an authentic patriot. In death, he becomes a symbol of principled belief.