Mufti Mohammad Kased, the unrecognised martyr

Mufti Mohammad Kased, a student at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), sacrificed his life during the Liberation War, yet he has not been officially recognised as a martyred freedom fighter.

Kased, who was the first martyr from Gafargaon upazila in Mymensingh, died in combat in the Paithol area on June 15, 1971.

Inspired by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's speech on March 7, Kased decided to join the Liberation War, arriving in Mymensingh the following day. After returning to his ancestral home in Niguari, Gafargaon, he took refuge at Sarkarbari in Kandipara to train fellow freedom fighters in their struggle against the occupying Pakistani Army.

Kased and his comrades later moved to the house of Dr Kali Babu in the Paithol area on June 14, 1971.

On June 15, local collaborators informed the Pakistani Army of their presence, leading to a surprise attack on Paithol village.

The Pakistani forces were taking away the then-chairman of the Paithol Union Parishad, Abdus Samad, when Kased and his fellow fighters, divided into three groups, launched an attack to rescue him. During the confrontation, Kased was shot in the chest and leg, dying instantly. His co-fighters and local residents performed his last rites, and he was buried in a graveyard in Joydarkhali, Gafargaon.

Abul Kashem, a fellow fighter, recalled the tragic moment of Kased's death, describing how Kased was shot in the leg but continued to fight until he was struck by a fatal bullet.

Three days after his burial, the Pakistani Army raided the area again, identified Kased's grave, and exhumed his body, transporting it by helicopter to Mymensingh. When the Pakistani forces learned that Kased was the son of Mohammad Wahid, the secretary of Mymensingh Municipality, they brought Wahid in to identify the body. However, he was unable to recognise Kased's decomposed remains. The body was ultimately handed over to the Mymensingh municipal authorities and reburied at Kalibari Graveyard in the city. The Pakistani Army also destroyed Kased's ancestral home in Niguari, he said.

His co-fighter Abdul Hamid said Kased's bravery and dedication had not been properly honoured, despite various initiatives over the years.

Kased's name is inscribed on memorial walls at BUET and Faujdarhat Cadet College. A souvenir published in 1972 during the inaugural ceremony of BUET's Titumir Hall recognised Kased alongside six other students who were martyred, with Chief of Army Staff MAG Osmani as the chief guest, he said.

Family sources reveal that Kased was a provincial chess champion in East Pakistan, a devoted student of chess master Dr Qazi Motahar Hossain, and the joint-secretary of the East Pakistan Chess Council.

He also had a passion for music and was skilled with the violin.

Following the Liberation War, BUET held regular chess competitions in Kased's memory, and since 1983, a chess competition organised by "Shaheed Mufti Smiriti Daba Parishad" has been held in Mymensingh. In 2016, a road in Mymensingh city was named after him.

In January 2021, local residents, including fellow freedom fighters, formed a human chain in Gafargaon and submitted a memorandum to the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO), Md Tajul Islam, requesting that Kased be recognised as a freedom fighter. The UNO forwarded the application to the Jatiyo Muktijuddha Council (JAMUCA) through the district commissioner in the same year, but it has yet to be gazetted, according to family sources.