{"id":910,"date":"2016-04-03T09:58:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T09:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/?p=910"},"modified":"2018-03-19T00:01:28","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T00:01:28","slug":"910","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/?p=910","title":{"rendered":"Short but extraordinary life of Samiullah Azmi"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the 21 years that she lived after Samiullah\u2019s reported death in a hail of bullets in 1971, this most loving of mothers refused to believe that her son was dead. She would pray to Allah on his behalf every single night before retiring to bed, hoping that her son was alive and well somewhere, somehow.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

The short but extraordinary life of Samiullah Azmi<\/strong><\/h3>\n

by\u00a0Razi Azmi<\/p>\n

(Published in New Age, Dhaka, 16 Nov 2015)<\/p>\n

In the four decades since the death of Siraj Sikdar in 1975, much has been written about him and his party, Purbo Banglar Shorbohara Party <\/em>(East Bengal Proletarian Party* – see note below<\/em>), but very little about his closest associates and the party\u2019s beginnings. Since the movement always remained underground, there are inaccuracies and gaps in nearly all of the published information.<\/p>\n

In 1991, the Party published \u201cShfulingo\u201d on the 20th anniversary of its formal launch some twenty years earlier. Among other things, it gives a list of all the \u201cshaheeds\u201d (martyrs) of the party.<\/p>\n

It is a long list, prefaced with the statement that while the editors have taken every care to provide \u201ca full and error-free list of martyr-comrades, it is bound to have errors, because a lot of history has been lost.\u201d\u00a0 It also welcomed comments, suggestions and corrections.<\/p>\n

Siraj Sikdar\u2019s photo appears in this section with the caption: \u201cParty Founder and Chairman of the First Central Committee Martyr-Comrade Siraj Sikdar\u201d.<\/p>\n

After Sikdar, and numbered \u201c1\u201d on this list of honour is: \u201cTaher, Real Name: Samiullah Azmi, Kamlapur, Dhaka\u201d (no photo). This brief entry says that he belonged to a family of refugees from Hyderabad in India. Virtually nothing else about him.<\/p>\n

I owe it to the memory of this barely-known Samiullah and to posterity, both as my brother and as one who sacrificed his life for the people of Bangladesh, to state some very basic facts about him in order to set the record straight.<\/p>\n

Naeem Mohaiemen\u2019s \u201cTerrorists or Guerillas in the Mist\u201d states: \u201cIn a December 2005 interview with the author, ex-Sharbahara Raisuddin Ariff claims that among the flag\u2019s co-creators was party member and non-Bengali Saifullah Azmi\u201d (footnote 6, page 310 of web version).<\/p>\n

The flag in question is the strikingly simple design with a red circle (denoting revolution\/ working class) against a green background (fertile and rural Bangladesh\/ peasantry) that later, most coincidentally, was adopted as the flag of the People\u2019s Republic of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

In his book, \u201cMohan Muktijuddho o Shaat\u2019\u00ed Novembor Obbhutthane Col Taher\u201d, Dr M Anwar Hossain also mentions the \u201cnon-Bengali Samiullah Azmi\u201d (pp. 13-14) and his brother, the present writer.<\/p>\n

Another reference to this \u201cnon-Bengali Saifullah Azmi\u201d is to be found in Suruja Rokan\u2019s \u201cRuhul and Rahela\u201d (http:\/\/www.bengaliska.com\/):<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1968 Siraj Sikder alias Ruhul Alam went to Burma for guerrilla training and tried to dig tunnels in Chittagong Hill Tracts in the spring of 1968. But when five young Bengali boys who accompanied him deserted, he was left with only two non-Bengali boys Azmi alias Ruhul Kuddus and his younger brother, a first year Honours in Chemistry of Dhaka University\u201d.<\/p>\n

Being the afore-mentioned \u201cyounger brother\u201d, who was majoring in Geology (not Chemistry) at Dhaka University, I am in a position to categorically state that Siraj Sikdar himself never set foot in Burma. In the spring of 1968, he had based himself a few miles north of Teknaf (with an engineering job), where he assembled 10-12 revolutionaries, including Samiullah. It is this group, led by Samiullah and including the present author as well as Anwar Hossain, that crossed the river Naf into Burma hoping to contact the Burmese Communist Party, but returned after a few days without success.<\/p>\n

A few members of this group deserted shortly thereafter for personal reasons, others parted company with Sikdar because of political differences. One of the latter was Anwar Hossain himself who, in his above-mentioned book, provides a partial list of the group (footnote 6, page 139), besides some other interesting details.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Samiullah Azmi (\u201cBachchu\u201d) was born in January 1947 in the town of Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) in India.\u00a0 He was the fifth of what were to be five brothers and three sisters. I was his immediate junior, becoming his best friend, confidante and sometime closest associate. Both our parents were from the village of Koiriyapar in Azamgarh district (now in Mau district) of U.P (not Hyderabad).<\/p>\n

As a result of his parents\u2019 migration in 1948, Samiullah grew up in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), going to Bengali-medium schools in Talora, Gaibandha and Feni before finally settling in Dhaka, going first to the English-medium Don\u2019s School (class-7) and Shaheen School (classes 9-10), then to Intermediate Technical College, Tejgaon (11-12) and Quaid-i-Azam College. Here, he was studying for his B.Sc, majoring in Soil Science, when he plunged head-on into revolutionary actvities. His last residence before going underground in 1969 was 95 Sabujbag in Kamlapur, Dhaka.<\/p>\n

He was by far the leading figure among the first handful of recruits of Siraj Sikdar. Their first meeting took place sometime towards the end of 1967, in a one-room East Pakistan Students\u2019 Union (EPSU-Menon Group) office in Topkhana, Azimpur (Dhaka).<\/p>\n

On that day I had accompanied Samiullah to the EPSU office. We were listening to some high-ranking leader of EPSU (from memory Mahbubullah), when our attention was suddenly drawn towards an unknown young man sitting behind us and talking to someone. He aroused our interest and, as we moved towards him and began to listen to what he had to say, we were awed by his personality and eloquence.<\/p>\n

Altogether a chance meeting, and a very fateful one at that, this was our first sight of Siraj Sikdar. He was barely known in EPSU circles outside of the East Pakistan Engineering University (now BUET), where he studied. Having just sat his final B.E. (Civil) exams. Sikdar now earnestly began to recruit a group of highly motivated revolutionary young men to launch his movement for the liberation of the \u201coppressed people of East Bengal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Within a few days of this first meeting, Samiullah became Sikdar\u2019s closest comrade and remained so until his death in Savar in August 1971. Following Samiullah\u2019s pre-mature and sudden death, by which time most of his family had left for Karachi owing to the violence and uncertain situation in Dhaka and elsewhere, Sikdar sent a hand-written eulogy to our sister in Muhammadpur, Dhaka. In it he paid tribute to Samiullah\u2019s contribution to the party and to the people of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

To underscore Samiullah\u2019s sacrifice for the people of Bangladesh, while not himself being an ethnic Bengali, Sikdar drew comparison with Norman Bethune, a Canadian communist who had died in 1939 while serving as a doctor with the Chinese Red Army.\u00a0 Bethune was known to us through a stirring obituary written by Mao Zedong, \u201cour great helmsman\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n

Our Teknaf venture had little to show by way of results, except bruised hands (from a failed attempt to dig tunnels in the hills like the Viet Cong) and battered illusions. The original group had dispersed and morale was low. After an inspiring conversation on the front lawn of Sikdar\u2019s residence in Rampur, Dhaka, one quiet evening Siraj Sikdar, Samiullah and myself signed, in blood, an oath to stick together on the revolutionary path, viewing ourselves as the kernel of the revolution which was \u201cinevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n

At this informal meeting in which only the three of us were present, we signed the oath under pseudonyms. Sikdar signed first, choosing for himself the pseudonym Ruhul Alam, while Samiullah settled on Ruhul Amin (later becoming known as Comrade Taher). Before I could decide on a pseudonym for myself, Sikdar suggested Ruhul Quddus. The \u201cRuhul\u201d common to all three would signify a brotherhood of close comrades, so we hoped! More about what followed, and about the revolution which did not follow, at a later date.<\/p>\n

In 1970 a revolutionary young woman named Khaleda, from the district of Coch Behar (in West Bengal, India), became Samiullah\u2019s de facto wife. She was the younger sister of one Kalam, a party sympathiser.<\/p>\n

Samiullah\u2019s father, Mohammad Safiullah, who worked in the Indian railways, migrated to what was then East Pakistan in 1948. He became a Station Master in the East Bengal Railway (later Pakistan Eastern Railway) and served in the following stations (in that order): Tistamuk Ghat, Ruhea, Badarganj, Kauniya, Talora, Gaibandha, Feni, Sylhet, Jamalpur Town, Gandaria and Goalundo Ghat (from where he retired in 1969).<\/p>\n

Far from having any political, let alone revolutionary leanings, our father was a typical Indian babu<\/em> with a worldview and attitude that combined his substantial jurisdiction and authority as a station master (bodo babu<\/em>) with his inherited north Indian feudal mindset. Not at all religious, he never fasted or prayed (except for the two annual congregational Eid prayers), until he was in his seventies.<\/p>\n

Our mother, Mehrunnessa Begum, was a very pious woman, a devoted Muslim, extremely compassionate and kind. She steadfastly adhered to her religion and was respectful of all faiths, castes and creeds. She taught us to respect all humanity and all religions, and to be especially kind to the poor and the oppressed, but also to keep safe and out of harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

For the 21 years that she lived after Samiullah\u2019s reported death in a hail of bullets in 1971, this most loving of mothers refused to believe that her son was dead. She would pray to Allah on his behalf every single night before retiring to bed, hoping that her son was alive and well somewhere, somehow.<\/p>\n

May both souls now rest in peace! And having clarified some elementary, but hitherto unknown, facts about my late revolutionary brother for whomever might be interested, I too hope to be at peace with myself.<\/p>\n

*Author’s note: \u00a0<\/em>The Purbo Banglar Sarbahara Party (East Bengal Proletarian Party) was formally launched on January 8, 1971 at a secret conclave of the Purba Bangla Sramik Andalon (East Bengal Workers\u2019 Movement) in Barisal in what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).<\/em><\/p>\n

The East Bengal Proletarian Party\u2019s roots, however, go back exactly three years, to January 8, 1968, when a very small group of people led by Siraj Sikdar (Sikder) formed the East Bengal Workers\u2019 Movement. \u00a0In fact, the date of January 8, 1971 was chosen to launch the Party because of its significance as the third anniversary of its actual founding date, that of its precursor, the East Bengal Workers\u2019 Movement.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the 21 years that she lived after Samiullah\u2019s reported death in a hail of bullets in 1971, this most loving of mothers refused to believe that her son was dead. She would pray to Allah on his behalf every … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1036,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}