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Adnan Khandker talks to Nasiruddin Yousuff, commander of the Jirabo Base Camp, on the herioc battle in Savar where a young group of Muktabahini soldiers took on the might of the 33rd Punjab Regiment and brought them down
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The day is December 13, 1971.
As dawn breaks, the thick cover of the mist still hangs in the air. The locale is ringing with the call for prayers, as freedom fighter Nasiruddin Yousuff Bachchu sits under a tree at the Savar Thana after a tiring last few days. Soon he hears an unusual rustling of the leaves far away and senses that someone or thing is approaching. His heart skips a beat and he stands up to get a better look at what is going on. In his hand, he firmly clasps an LMG, ready to defend his motherland and unit.
Nasiruddin Yousuff is the commander of the Jirabo base camp under Sector two, which was commanded by Major Khaled Mosharraf. The camp was located near the Jirabo river, a little distance from the Savar Dairy Farm. They were many camps like this one all over the sector and were mainly tasked to protect caches of ammunition coming from India. It would be a poor strategic move to have all our weaponry stockpiled in Dhaka so we kept stocks of them in our camp. Also, Khaled Musharraf and ATM Haider instructed us to intermittently attack Dhaka and disrupt Pakistani army movement along the road and waterways to Dhaka, remembers Nasiruddin. The unit had 450 fighters of which 23 soldiers were urban guerillas and conducted many daring missions at BTV and Baitul Mukarram.
When the camp was first established, the surrounding village was made rajakar-free through a very transparent cleansing process, remembers Nasiruddin. A committee was formed comprising of educated locals like the Headmaster and other professionals from various walks of life living in the surrounding cluster of villages. This process of trial by jury of peers in a civil system without the intervention of armed bodies like our Jirabo base camp ensured justice and earned the unit a very good name, says Nasiruddin.
It was probably this good name that led to the unit being contacted by Bangladeshi police officers in Savar, which was administered by the East Pakistan Civil Armed Forces (EPCAF). The EPCAF was created after the Bengal Police force did not side with the gruesome killings by the Pakistan Army in the early months of 1971. Some Pakistani officers were in charge of the Savar Police Station and were committing atrocities against the local population. On 12 December, with intelligence supplied from inside the Thana by the local officers, the Jirabo Unit stormed the police station and executed the Pakistani officers. The local officers joined the Jirabo unit and they set up camp near the Savar Thana, as they were all very tired.
We usually had observation camps 2km to 3km all around our location to keep track of the army movements and for our safety. These posts were manned 24 hours a day and each post had a cycle so that they could quickly ride to us to signal any danger. If the Pakistani army attacked us we would be at a serious disadvantage, says Nasiruddin.
Back to the 13th, slowly a bearded man wearing a white cap appeared out of the mist riding a bicycle. Nasiruddin relieved, loosened his grip on his weapon as soon as recognized the approaching man as one of his own on watch at the observation posts. Yet, his mind was soon overcome with more dread, as a scout returning from the observation posts could only mean one thing and one thing alone: that they were coming under attack.
The Pakistani army are coming, sir. They are 2 to 3 km away from here. They are coming from the Kashempur direction straight towards you, said the bearded man with a grim expression on his face and added the enemy are at least 1,000 strong.
The 33rd Punjab regiment after being forced to withdraw from Kamalpur was on their way to Dhaka taking the same road we would take to Savars Liberation War monument today. The regiment was in a hurry as it was under clear instructions from the Pakistan Armys high command to return to Dhaka to reinforce the army positions. At that time, the army had decided to shift their tactics to turning Dhaka into an impenetrable fortress so that the Muktijoddhas could not enter the city. The 33rd Punjab regiment was well known during the war as the strongest regiment after the Bengal regiment.
Nasiruddin found himself in a tight corner as he only had 450 men of which at least 150 had to be kept as reserve to bail the main unit out if it gets into trouble or suffers heavy casualties.
So I told some of my other officers to get the men ready in 15 minutes as the Punjab Regiment is headed this way. The news spread like wild fire all throughout the camp and soon soldiers were lining up in front of the core to collect their weapons. They were all ready in 15 minutes prepared for battle but none of them had even had a decent nights sleep, let alone breakfast, reminiscences Nasiruddin.
Promptly, the Jirabo unit lined up on the road the Paksitan army was on and started scouring the surroundings to find the best strategic position to ambush them. Since the long column of the army will have to be fired upon, the guerilla unit decided to set up a 400 to 500 yard long ambush. The main body of the attack, comprising of a 150 men led by Nasiruddin, would be placed at the center of the ambush. 200 yards to the right of the main body, flank one would take position and flank two would take similar distance to the left of the main body. Since the full 33rd Punjab regiment with 1000 men was headed down the road by foot, its column would be at least half a mile long. A year earlier, the road had been dug up for some repair work; at the same time the road was also elevated 2 to 3 feet. So, its sides were riddled with holes while the area surrounding the road had many trees. Thus it was a perfect location for the ambushing Jirabo unit to wait in patience and take cover.
In the main body with me, I had five to six well-trained people, former members of the Pakistan army. They had defected when Bangladeshs independence was announced and joined the war effort on their return home. One of whom was a Subedar Major called Mohabbat Ali, recalls Nasiruddin. The plan was that when the 33rd Punjab regiments column reached flank two, they would be well within the ambush area and would have walked right into a trap. The Jirabo unit would open fire with light machine guns (LMGs), SLRs, 3.3 guns and also lead a grenade charge at them.
Soon after taking position, the Jirabo unit could see the first faces of the 33rd Punjab regiment appear one km down the road. The regiment even with its large number and load was marching relatively quickly whilst the Jirabo unit was waiting and watching them approach their trap. Everybody sat patiently, awaiting the right moment.
Unfortunately, Mohabbat Ali, an elderly chap whose age had exceeded 60 could not control his nerves and in a rush adrenaline opened fire when the enemys column had just entered the ambush area. He fired from beside me, but I could not stop him, regrets Nasiruddin.
After the first bullets were fired, the Pakistani soldiers hit the ground immediately and rolled on to the other side of the road and engaged the Jirabo unit in a direct frontal war, whilst the rest of the column retreated and moved back to a safe position once they realised that they were being ambushed.
We did not have much experience at frontal war as we were just guerilla warriors who did the hit and run routine. We had only been involved in a frontal war only once, prior to Savar. At the same time, the skill and discipline displayed by our enemy was unnerving, recalls Nasiruddin.
Since, the Muktis had opened fire, they had no other option but to open full fledged fire at the enemy. The soldiers on the other side of the road were within the control of the Muktis as they fallen into their trap. But Nasiruddin soon realized that the rest of the column who retreated to safe position are planning an attack and would soon mount an attack to get out of this ambush. Thus it had to be dismantled too.
Nasiruddin, in that moment, decided to move the main body under his charge to the right of flank one. After moving half km behind their original position under the cover fire of flank one, they quickly ran across to their new position to counter any attack. Thus, flank one became the main body and Nasiruddins group became flank one.
But the Pakistan army soon placed a medium machine gun (MNG), a powerful weapon with large bullets that can sear through barks of trees. They placed the MNG on top of an elevated plain to fire on the Muktis. The uneven terrain of Savar worked in their favour this time. Yet, flank two led by a young muktijoddha, Nooru, changed position and fell back to a spot behind their original location. This new spot was at 90 degrees to flank one and was taken up by Nooru to bring down the MNG.
But then, the flank two fire aimed at the Pakistani army, also hit flank one.
The Pakistani army quickly noticed the Jirabo units position changes and tried to setup two MNGs on both sides of the location so that they could clear the road and break away from the Muktis ambush web. They tried to get the Muktis to focus on the MNGs so that the regiment could march out of the scene.
Immediately, Nasiruddin decided to fall back from their current position to resist them from breaking the web. They tried it a second time, but the Muktis pushed back this attempt too.
At the same time, flank twos fire was becoming increasingly hazardous for flank one. Thus Nasiruddin wanted flank two to change position but back in those days they did not have walkie-talkies to communicate with. A piece of information had to be passed on from one person to another to the end of the body where the last person and the closest person runs and delivers the message. Nasiruddin asked another Mukti, Arif, to ask Nooru to change his spot to avoid hitting flank one.
A young 15-year-old boy Titu was next to Arif. Titu was too young to fight, he used to cook and clean for the unit. But he always wanted to go off to the battle with his unit. This time around, he had managed a weapon and placed himself in the battlefield without his commanders knowledge. New to war fields and its rules, Titu misunderstood Arifs signal and started running towards Nooru to ask him to move and fell in the line of fire. The Pakistani army focused their MNGs power at him.
After being hit, he was airborne and then he dropped to the ground. He started screaming in pain. I was so upset and shocked. It was really unfortunate, says Nasiruddin.
In the meantime, Nooru crawled up to a position behind the MNGs and shot them from a point blank range whilst they were still firing at Titu. On the other side, the large column of the regiment made a third attempt to march out of the ambush. This time, the commander was willing to let them go as the number of casualties for Muktis were already five and rising. Plus, they had done considerable damage to the regiment.
He also decided to deceive them a little. With the kind of ambush that was laid out, the Muktis had successfully sown a tight enough web around the regiment so they could not get on to the Dhaka-Chittagong road.
Thus I loosened our defenses so they take another road which would take them to the low lying lands of the Jirabo river- a dead end, says Nasiruddin.
They took the bait and the Jirabo unit took position on the elevated ground above the low-lying lands with the cover of crops on the river cornice. They tried turning back but we opened direct fire at them and pushed them back to the edge of the river. They could not even cross the river and reach Mirpur, as they had no boats. Both parties exchanged fire for five hours at that point, and the jirabo unit killed another 250 enemy soldiers.
Then, Nasiruddin got hold of a mike made of paper and asked them to surrender. All of them surrendered except for a small group, which was resisting. The battle raged on with the small group but afterwards they yielded to Nasiruddins plea to surrender. One member of the small group stepped forward with his hands in the air and Nasiruddin immediately asked his men to hold back their fire.
All of a sudden, the soldier took his gun in his hands and shot himself. This soldier, we properly buried him. 37 soldiers surrendered to us and we handed them over to the Red Cross. The villagers beat the rest to death. The villagers really wanted the village committee to try the soldiers we had captured, says Nasiruddin.
Today, a monument in memory of Titu stands near the main gate of the Savar Dairy Farm where his compatriots buried him. Bangladesh Army maintains the monument. So thats the tale of how the mighty 33rd Punjab regiment was brought down by our lungi-pora muktijoddhas, concludes Nasiruddin with a hint of pride in his units accomplishment.
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/
The day is December 13, 1971.
As dawn breaks, the thick cover of the mist still hangs in the air. The locale is ringing with the call for prayers, as freedom fighter Nasiruddin Yousuff Bachchu sits under a tree at the Savar Thana after a tiring last few days. Soon he hears an unusual rustling of the leaves far away and senses that someone or thing is approaching. His heart skips a beat and he stands up to get a better look at what is going on. In his hand, he firmly clasps an LMG, ready to defend his motherland and unit.
Nasiruddin Yousuff is the commander of the Jirabo base camp under Sector two, which was commanded by Major Khaled Mosharraf. The camp was located near the Jirabo river, a little distance from the Savar Dairy Farm. They were many camps like this one all over the sector and were mainly tasked to protect caches of ammunition coming from India. It would be a poor strategic move to have all our weaponry stockpiled in Dhaka so we kept stocks of them in our camp. Also, Khaled Musharraf and ATM Haider instructed us to intermittently attack Dhaka and disrupt Pakistani army movement along the road and waterways to Dhaka, remembers Nasiruddin. The unit had 450 fighters of which 23 soldiers were urban guerillas and conducted many daring missions at BTV and Baitul Mukarram.
When the camp was first established, the surrounding village was made rajakar-free through a very transparent cleansing process, remembers Nasiruddin. A committee was formed comprising of educated locals like the Headmaster and other professionals from various walks of life living in the surrounding cluster of villages. This process of trial by jury of peers in a civil system without the intervention of armed bodies like our Jirabo base camp ensured justice and earned the unit a very good name, says Nasiruddin.
It was probably this good name that led to the unit being contacted by Bangladeshi police officers in Savar, which was administered by the East Pakistan Civil Armed Forces (EPCAF). The EPCAF was created after the Bengal Police force did not side with the gruesome killings by the Pakistan Army in the early months of 1971. Some Pakistani officers were in charge of the Savar Police Station and were committing atrocities against the local population. On 12 December, with intelligence supplied from inside the Thana by the local officers, the Jirabo Unit stormed the police station and executed the Pakistani officers. The local officers joined the Jirabo unit and they set up camp near the Savar Thana, as they were all very tired.
We usually had observation camps 2km to 3km all around our location to keep track of the army movements and for our safety. These posts were manned 24 hours a day and each post had a cycle so that they could quickly ride to us to signal any danger. If the Pakistani army attacked us we would be at a serious disadvantage, says Nasiruddin.
Back to the 13th, slowly a bearded man wearing a white cap appeared out of the mist riding a bicycle. Nasiruddin relieved, loosened his grip on his weapon as soon as recognized the approaching man as one of his own on watch at the observation posts. Yet, his mind was soon overcome with more dread, as a scout returning from the observation posts could only mean one thing and one thing alone: that they were coming under attack.
The Pakistani army are coming, sir. They are 2 to 3 km away from here. They are coming from the Kashempur direction straight towards you, said the bearded man with a grim expression on his face and added the enemy are at least 1,000 strong.
The 33rd Punjab regiment after being forced to withdraw from Kamalpur was on their way to Dhaka taking the same road we would take to Savars Liberation War monument today. The regiment was in a hurry as it was under clear instructions from the Pakistan Armys high command to return to Dhaka to reinforce the army positions. At that time, the army had decided to shift their tactics to turning Dhaka into an impenetrable fortress so that the Muktijoddhas could not enter the city. The 33rd Punjab regiment was well known during the war as the strongest regiment after the Bengal regiment.
Nasiruddin found himself in a tight corner as he only had 450 men of which at least 150 had to be kept as reserve to bail the main unit out if it gets into trouble or suffers heavy casualties.
So I told some of my other officers to get the men ready in 15 minutes as the Punjab Regiment is headed this way. The news spread like wild fire all throughout the camp and soon soldiers were lining up in front of the core to collect their weapons. They were all ready in 15 minutes prepared for battle but none of them had even had a decent nights sleep, let alone breakfast, reminiscences Nasiruddin.
Promptly, the Jirabo unit lined up on the road the Paksitan army was on and started scouring the surroundings to find the best strategic position to ambush them. Since the long column of the army will have to be fired upon, the guerilla unit decided to set up a 400 to 500 yard long ambush. The main body of the attack, comprising of a 150 men led by Nasiruddin, would be placed at the center of the ambush. 200 yards to the right of the main body, flank one would take position and flank two would take similar distance to the left of the main body. Since the full 33rd Punjab regiment with 1000 men was headed down the road by foot, its column would be at least half a mile long. A year earlier, the road had been dug up for some repair work; at the same time the road was also elevated 2 to 3 feet. So, its sides were riddled with holes while the area surrounding the road had many trees. Thus it was a perfect location for the ambushing Jirabo unit to wait in patience and take cover.
In the main body with me, I had five to six well-trained people, former members of the Pakistan army. They had defected when Bangladeshs independence was announced and joined the war effort on their return home. One of whom was a Subedar Major called Mohabbat Ali, recalls Nasiruddin. The plan was that when the 33rd Punjab regiments column reached flank two, they would be well within the ambush area and would have walked right into a trap. The Jirabo unit would open fire with light machine guns (LMGs), SLRs, 3.3 guns and also lead a grenade charge at them.
Soon after taking position, the Jirabo unit could see the first faces of the 33rd Punjab regiment appear one km down the road. The regiment even with its large number and load was marching relatively quickly whilst the Jirabo unit was waiting and watching them approach their trap. Everybody sat patiently, awaiting the right moment.
Unfortunately, Mohabbat Ali, an elderly chap whose age had exceeded 60 could not control his nerves and in a rush adrenaline opened fire when the enemys column had just entered the ambush area. He fired from beside me, but I could not stop him, regrets Nasiruddin.
After the first bullets were fired, the Pakistani soldiers hit the ground immediately and rolled on to the other side of the road and engaged the Jirabo unit in a direct frontal war, whilst the rest of the column retreated and moved back to a safe position once they realised that they were being ambushed.
We did not have much experience at frontal war as we were just guerilla warriors who did the hit and run routine. We had only been involved in a frontal war only once, prior to Savar. At the same time, the skill and discipline displayed by our enemy was unnerving, recalls Nasiruddin.
Since, the Muktis had opened fire, they had no other option but to open full fledged fire at the enemy. The soldiers on the other side of the road were within the control of the Muktis as they fallen into their trap. But Nasiruddin soon realized that the rest of the column who retreated to safe position are planning an attack and would soon mount an attack to get out of this ambush. Thus it had to be dismantled too.
Nasiruddin, in that moment, decided to move the main body under his charge to the right of flank one. After moving half km behind their original position under the cover fire of flank one, they quickly ran across to their new position to counter any attack. Thus, flank one became the main body and Nasiruddins group became flank one.
But the Pakistan army soon placed a medium machine gun (MNG), a powerful weapon with large bullets that can sear through barks of trees. They placed the MNG on top of an elevated plain to fire on the Muktis. The uneven terrain of Savar worked in their favour this time. Yet, flank two led by a young muktijoddha, Nooru, changed position and fell back to a spot behind their original location. This new spot was at 90 degrees to flank one and was taken up by Nooru to bring down the MNG.
But then, the flank two fire aimed at the Pakistani army, also hit flank one.
The Pakistani army quickly noticed the Jirabo units position changes and tried to setup two MNGs on both sides of the location so that they could clear the road and break away from the Muktis ambush web. They tried to get the Muktis to focus on the MNGs so that the regiment could march out of the scene.
Immediately, Nasiruddin decided to fall back from their current position to resist them from breaking the web. They tried it a second time, but the Muktis pushed back this attempt too.
At the same time, flank twos fire was becoming increasingly hazardous for flank one. Thus Nasiruddin wanted flank two to change position but back in those days they did not have walkie-talkies to communicate with. A piece of information had to be passed on from one person to another to the end of the body where the last person and the closest person runs and delivers the message. Nasiruddin asked another Mukti, Arif, to ask Nooru to change his spot to avoid hitting flank one.
A young 15-year-old boy Titu was next to Arif. Titu was too young to fight, he used to cook and clean for the unit. But he always wanted to go off to the battle with his unit. This time around, he had managed a weapon and placed himself in the battlefield without his commanders knowledge. New to war fields and its rules, Titu misunderstood Arifs signal and started running towards Nooru to ask him to move and fell in the line of fire. The Pakistani army focused their MNGs power at him.
After being hit, he was airborne and then he dropped to the ground. He started screaming in pain. I was so upset and shocked. It was really unfortunate, says Nasiruddin.
In the meantime, Nooru crawled up to a position behind the MNGs and shot them from a point blank range whilst they were still firing at Titu. On the other side, the large column of the regiment made a third attempt to march out of the ambush. This time, the commander was willing to let them go as the number of casualties for Muktis were already five and rising. Plus, they had done considerable damage to the regiment.
He also decided to deceive them a little. With the kind of ambush that was laid out, the Muktis had successfully sown a tight enough web around the regiment so they could not get on to the Dhaka-Chittagong road.
Thus I loosened our defenses so they take another road which would take them to the low lying lands of the Jirabo river- a dead end, says Nasiruddin.
They took the bait and the Jirabo unit took position on the elevated ground above the low-lying lands with the cover of crops on the river cornice. They tried turning back but we opened direct fire at them and pushed them back to the edge of the river. They could not even cross the river and reach Mirpur, as they had no boats. Both parties exchanged fire for five hours at that point, and the jirabo unit killed another 250 enemy soldiers.
Then, Nasiruddin got hold of a mike made of paper and asked them to surrender. All of them surrendered except for a small group, which was resisting. The battle raged on with the small group but afterwards they yielded to Nasiruddins plea to surrender. One member of the small group stepped forward with his hands in the air and Nasiruddin immediately asked his men to hold back their fire.
All of a sudden, the soldier took his gun in his hands and shot himself. This soldier, we properly buried him. 37 soldiers surrendered to us and we handed them over to the Red Cross. The villagers beat the rest to death. The villagers really wanted the village committee to try the soldiers we had captured, says Nasiruddin.
Today, a monument in memory of Titu stands near the main gate of the Savar Dairy Farm where his compatriots buried him. Bangladesh Army maintains the monument. So thats the tale of how the mighty 33rd Punjab regiment was brought down by our lungi-pora muktijoddhas, concludes Nasiruddin with a hint of pride in his units accomplishment.
