In the beginning of the Liberation War I was in Chattogram (then called Chittagong) Chittagong studying in Bengali Hons. class in Chittagong University. During my education career, I was involved with journalism serving daily Azadi of Chittagong as a Reporter and University Correspondent of national daily Ittefaq. I was also associated with Chittagong radio as a regular talker of students programs.

On March 26 early morning at 3.00 A.M. Professor Muhammad Khaled, Editor daily Azadi asked me to see him at his residence at Sirajuddullah Road. The distance between his house and ours at Kazem Ali Road was only 5 minutes walk. On arrival at his residence at 4:00 he provided us---myself, son of Mr. Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury and others---a car to fetch Mr. Nazmul Alam, Regional Director of Chittagong Radio from his Ashkar Dighir house and other officers of Chittagong Radio to the Jupiter House of Akhturazzaman Babu. We, however, could not find Regional Director in the house and was told that he had left the house previous night. We then left for the resident of Sultan Ahmed, News Editor of Chittagong Radio at Agrabad Colony. I came to know Mr. Sultan Ahmed when I along with Mr. Abdur Rab, General Secretary of CHUCSU and other students went to his office on March 7 to demand to broadcast 7 March speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. We asked him to put down the portrait of Mohammad Ali Zinnah from the wall of his office which he declined and there was shouting and counter-shouting between him and me. Mr. Sultan too was not available at his house. Then we went from there to the Chittagong Radio station at Agrabad and came to know that the radio officers and Engineers of the station assembled there early morning and had closed down the station. They also damaged many parts of the transmitter so badly that it could not be repaired soon.

Radio Engineer Abdur Sakur and his team of engineers and technicians took away the damaged transmitter to Madanhat for repair. But when it was not possible to repair all of them came back to Kalurghat and alternatively we took 1 kilowatt transmitter that was there to Belunia. On April 4 the 1 kilometer transmitter was taken to further inside of Indian boarder (nearer to Belunia) and resumed broadcasting of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra from there on that day. We started broadcasting through this radio station whose broadcasting radius was 10 to 15 kilometers.

At this stage the BSF of India came forward to help us with a 60 kilowatt short wave transmitter to increase the coverage area of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. With the full protection of BSF Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra resumed its broadcast in full force from Bagafa (India). Col. Mukherji of BSF ensured all kind of support and facilities to the officers and artists of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (although they didn't allow us to broadcast "Hanadar Punjabi", as the guards and protectors to the Bagafa transmitter was a Punjabi unit of the Indian Armed Forces). At the end, Government of India donated a 50 kilowatt medium wave transmitter to Bangladesh which facilitated the broadcasting coverage of Bangladesh and many Asian countries. The officers, engineers, employees and artists of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra continued their war campaign from this Baliganj (Calcutta) radio centre till the victory day of December 16, 1971. I was dedicated to this organisation as its War Correspondent for long 9 months of war and used to broadcast features twice a week about the heroic fight and sacrifices of our valiant Freedom Fighters in the war fields. Many of my war reports had the worth and value of broadcast by my name by BBC, Radio Australia, NHK, Akashbani, etc. Mr. Mark Tully of BBC took my news directly from war fields many a times and the friendship grew with him in war fields was still warm.

On March 25, 1971 night at 11-30, the hero-martyr Subedar Major Shawkat Ali of EPR Signal Corps of Pilkhana, Dhaka dared to transmit Bangabandhu's Proclamation of Independence message all over the country. In my curiosity to know how the Subedar Major Shawkat Ali could accomplish the task in that fearful night, I sought a meeting with Mrs. Selina Perween (alias Rita), Professor of Zoology, Rajshahi University, the only offspring of Bangabir Subedar Major Shawkat Ali and his wife Assistant Professor Firoza Begum. Mrs. Selina Perween said: "We have nothing to ask from the Bengali nation. My father embraced martyrdom after he had done his assigned job of sending Bangabandhu's Proclamation of Independence all over the country at 11-30 P.M. on March 25 as his humble effort towards freeing the nation from the yoke of Pakistani occupation. So long the independent Bangladesh survives on this planet and Bengalees continue to enjoy freedom, my father's name cannot be obliterated. He shall remain immortal till doomsday as one of the best sons of the nation."  Subedar Major Shawkat Ali was arrested around 12 o'clock in the night of March 25 while  transmitting the message of Bangabandhu's Declaration of Independence."

The Pakistani Army took him to barrack number eleven and then to Mohammadpur Physical Training Centre to torture him physically. At Peelkhana most of the Bengali soldiers were already killed. Those surviving were taken to the torture centre at Mohammadpur to extract information from them. Among others there were: Subedar Molla, Subedar Zahur Munshi, Subedar Abdul Hye and Subedar Ayub. Of them, Subedar Molla and Subedar Munshi used to stay with their families outside Peelkhana. So it was possible on their part to obtain and bring the message of Bangabandhu's Declaration of Independence inside Peelkhana much before. Suspecting for the act, the Pak Army tortured them in the most barbaric fashion.

Prof. Selina Perween, daughter of Subedar Major Shawkat Ali narrated the tragedy of 1971 to me. She said: "My father secretly agreeing on oath with Bangabandhu took courage to announce in the name of Allah the historic message of Bangabandhu's Declaration of Independence endangering his very life so gravely. This message was heard by foreign embassies in Dhaka, and even by foreign vessels having powerful transmitters on that fateful night of March 25. Not even for a while he thought of his family before he was caught in the act of sending the message through transmitter. He was totally absorbed in his cherished dream of liberating his motherland from colonial rule which all the Bengali uniformed personnel felt most than others. After he was arrested by the Pak Army, we were confirmed on April 29, 1971 of his martyrdom.

At no point the valiant Bengali hero Shawkat Ali yielded to their torture. At last twenty eight brave freedom-fighters including him were carried in a truck to the Pagla ghat. As asked they stood in line and were fired upon. Of them, Subedar Ayub miraculously escaped death. His body had shrunk due to severe pain and the bullet of the Pak Army went over his head missing the target.

He fell unconscious and the killers thought him to be dead and pushed him along with other bodies to the Buriganga river. Next day the villagers rescued him in an unconscious condition. He, later, crossed the border and on reaching Kalyani in West Bengal he joined the liberation war. There he met another member of the Signal Corps Subedar Nasim Ali who had fled from Rajshahi. He told him of the hair-raising details of torture that Subedar Major Shawkat Ali had to go through in the hands of the Pak Army. Subedar Nasim Ali told to Prof. Selina Perween and her mother about the brutality done to them by the Pak Army."

Aside, after independence in 1972 when Assistant Professor Mrs. Firoza Begum visited Peelkhana to draw her husband's pension, she met a number of colleagues of her late shaheed husband. They were in full praise of her husband's role in transmitting Bangabandhu's message of the Declaration of Independence on March 25 and they said, "His name shall be written in golden letters in the history of Bangladesh. The other name as, the pride of the BDR and the Bangladesh Army should be the name of Subedar Major Shawkat Ali."

I appeal to all the Bengalis of the world to please hoist the flag on every house today and write on it in letters of gold: “Bangalees are a nation of heroes, a nation of three million martyrs. The immortal soul of the Bengalee nation is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman”.

The writer is  war correspondent of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra & former Secretary, Govt. of Bangladesh,

Email: [email protected], web: www.musabd.com