Sector commander Nuruzzaman dies

Sector seven commander Lt Col (retd) Kazi Nuruzzaman has died at the age of 86. UPDATES 1

Dhaka, May 6 (bdnews24.com) — Commander of the Sector Seven of the Liberation War Lt Col (retd) Qazi Nuruzzaman has died at the age of 86, his family said.

The freedom fighter died of old age complications at the city's Square Hospitals at 10:15am on Friday, his son-in-law Shahidullah Khan Badal told bdnews24.com.

His body will remain at BIRDEM mortuary on Friday night.

On Saturday, it will be kept at the Central Shaheed Minar for two hours from 10:30am to enable people to pay their last respect.

Meanwhile, prime minister expressed deep sorrow at the death of Naruzzaman and said the country has suffered an irreparable loss at his death.

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia also condoled the death of Nuruzzamanan and said, "The country has lost a progressive political thinker at his death."

The war veteran will be buried at Dhaka Cantonment's freedom fighter's graveyard in state honour later on the day.

Nuruzzaman had led the Sector Seven comprising Rajshahi, Bogra and Pabna regions from Sept to Dec 1971.

Bangladesh was divided into 11 sectors, with each of them having a sector commander to lead the guerrilla warfare.

Nuruzzaman was appointed the commander of the sector 7 and played a pivotal key role in the war.

EARLY LIFE AND ARMY CAREER

Born in 1925, Nuruzzaman was a student of Chemistry at St Xavier's College in Calcutta. He joined the British Indian Navy in 1943 despite his father's objection.

This was perhaps the first step taken by him towards the journey of valiance. He was transferred to the army in 1946 at Jawaharlal Nehru's encouragement.

On completion of an advanced training at the Royal Artillery School, he returned to Pakistan and was promoted to the rank of major in 1954.

He was transferred to the East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation and finally retired from the armed forces.

LIBERATION WAR

In 1971, he joined the Liberation War and succeeded Maj Najmul Haque who died in a road crash on Nov 26, 1971 in India as Sector Commander.

Nuruzzaman was awarded the Bir Uttam award, which is the second highest award for individual gallantry in Bangladesh.

Since thousands of Mukti Bahini volunteers, mostly farmers, were killed and did not receive any recognition, he decided not to accept any gallantry award and rejected the Bir Uttam award.

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