Sector Commander Abu Osman Chowdhury is no more.He is the Son of Faridganj, Liberation War Sector Commander and former Chandpur District Council Administrator.
He succumbed to coronavirus at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in the capital around 8:00 am on Saturday.
His personal assistant Abul Bashar confirmed the news.
Abu Osman was admitted to CMH on Sunday afternoon in a critical condition. His daughter Nasima Tariq said that coronavirus infection was detected in the test.
Harun Habib said that Abu Osman, 84, has been suffering from various age-related complications for a long time. His memory is also disappearing.
Abu Osman Chowdhury was born on 01 January, 1936 in Madanergaon village of Faridganj upazila in Chandpur. After passing BA from Cumilla Victoria College, he was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1958. In April 1968, he was promoted to Major.
In 1960, Abu Osman married Nazia Khanam, the eldest daughter of Mansur Ahmed of Maulvi Para in Cumilla. Nasima Osman and Fawzia Osman are their two daughters.
Abu Osman received the news at the Kushtia Circuit House on the night of March 25, 1971, when the Pakistani Army’s brutal Operation Search Light began in Dhaka. At that time he was in charge of Chuadanga as the commander of the fourth wing of the East Pakistan Rifles.
The next morning he reached Chuadanga from Kushtia and declared rebellion and joined the war of liberation with a group of soldiers. Later he was given the responsibility of the commander of Sector 7 of the Liberation War in the south-western part of the country.
When the cabinet of the government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was formed at Baidyanathtala in Meherpur on 17 April, Abu Osman Chowdhury gave a guard of honor to the cabinet with a platoon of soldiers.
His wife Nazia Khanam also bravely worked at that time to provide food and drink, money and medicine to the families of the freedom fighters on the battlefield, guarding arms and ammunition.
After the independence of the country, Abu Osman Chowdhury was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and Bangabandhu appointed him as the Director of the Army Service Corps (ASC).
After the assassination of Bangabandhu, on 07 November 1975, during a military coup, a group of soldiers attacked Abu Osman Chowdhury’s house in Gulshan to kill him. He survived that day as he was not at home but his wife Nazia Khanam was killed.
Later, Abu Osman Chowdhury played an important role in the formation of the committee to eliminate the murderous brokers of 1971 to demand the trial of war criminals. He is currently the Senior Vice Chairman of the Sector Commanders Forum.
When the Awami League government came to power in 1996, Abu Osman Chowdhury was made the chairman of BJMC. Later, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appointed him as the administrator of Chandpur District Council.
In 2014, the government awarded the Independence Medal to Abu Osman Chowdhury for his heroic contribution to the War of Independence.
Staff Correspondent, September 05,2020