Abdul Kader Siddique

Abdul Kader Siddique
আবদুল কাদের সিদ্দিকী
Siddique in 2017
Member of the Jatiyo Sangshad from Tangail
Personal details
Spouse(s) Nasrin Siddique
Relatives Abdul Latif Siddiqui (brother)[1]
Awards Bir Uttom
Military service
Battles/wars Bangladesh Liberation War

Abdul Kader Siddique is a Bangladeshi politician. He is popularly known under the title of Bangabir. He served as a freedom fighter and organizer of the Bangladesh Liberation War. He fought with an estimated 10,000-strong guerrilla force in the Tangail region against the Pakistan Army.[2] The army was called Kaderia Bahini (Kader's Army). At the end of the war, on December 16, Siddique's forces entered Dhaka along with the Indian forces, signaling the end of the war.[3] He was awarded Bir Uttom by the Government of Bangladesh. Since 1999, he has been serving as the leader of his own-formed party Krishak Sramik Janata League.[4]

Involvement in massacres of prisoners of war

According to a report in The Times, Siddique and his guerrillas beat up and subsequently bayoneted and shot to death a group of prisoners (who they claimed were Razakars) after a rally held near Dhaka Stadium on 19 December 1971, at which Siddiqui himself gave an hour-long speech. The prisoners were murdered after performing Islamic prayers together with their captors. According to the same source, shortly before murdering them, the Mukti Bahini soldiers promised the prisoners 'a fair trial, as in any civilized country'.[5] Siddique personally bayoneted three prisoners to death and the entire incident was filmed by foreign film crews whom Siddique invited to witness the spectacle.[6] Siddique was subsequently arrested by the Indian Army.[2][7] Siddique discussed his involvement in the murders in an interview with Yasmin Saikia, the author of Women, War and Making Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. After describing an event in which Siddiqui shot a Mukti Bahini soldier for stealing a shawl from a Bengali civilian, Saikia states, referring to the Dhaka stadium incident, that 'at the time he did not think of his act as a crime against humanity, being swayed by the Bengali public sentiment for revenge. Today he knows that both the acts – killing a younger soldier for a petty theft and killing the Biharis (Mohajirs) for being different from the Bengalis – were public acts of violence disguised under the label of national morale to establish the power of the Bengalis and claim victory, but they were violent acts, nonetheless, and he is pained by his past'.[8]

Post-1971

After East Pakistan seceded from West Pakistan and became Bangladesh, Siddique went back to his home town of Tangail where he enjoyed considerable patronage from the Awami League, the party of Prime Minister Mujibur Rahman.[6]

After the assassination of Mujibur Rahman in 1975, Siddiqui and his followers organised attacks on the authorities of Khondakar Mushtaque's government. Elements loyal to Siddiqui operated from bases in Assam province in India and were actively supported by India's Border Security Force.[6]

Siddique was elected member of the parliament of Bangladesh from different constituencies of Tangail.

In 1999, Siddique was expelled from Awami League. He then resigned from the parliament and formed his own party Krishak Sramik Janata League.[4]

Personal life

Siddique is married to Nasrin Siddique.[9] His elder brother Abdul Latif Siddiqui is also an Awami League politician who served as the member of parliament and the minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology.[1] He, too, was expelled from the party in 2015.[10] Their other two younger brothers are Murad Siddiqui and Azad Siddiqui.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 "Kader Siddique's nomination cancelled, his party calls Tangail shutdown for Wednesday". Retrieved 2018-08-21.
  2. 1 2 Brian May, "Indian Army Arrests 'Tiger of Tangail' After Dacca Bayoneting", The Times, December 21, 1971, pg. 4.
  3. ↑ Ahmed, Helal Uddin (2012). "Mukti Bahini". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  4. 1 2 "Quader holds talks with Kader Siddique". The Daily Star. 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
  5. ↑ Stanhope, Henry (December 20, 1971). "Mukti Bahini Bayonet Prisoners After Prayers". The Times. London. p. 4. The leader of the Mukti Bahini ... took part, casually beating the prisoners with has swagger stick before borrowing a bayonet to lunge at one of the trussed-up men. The leader, Mr Abdul Qader Siddiqui, ... had only 10 minutes before promised the prisoners a fair trial 'as in any civilized country'. Mr Siddiqui ... had earlier haranged [sic] a crowd of 8,000 for nearly an hour ... The rally ended with Islamic prayers in which the prisoners ... joined their captors in offering praise to Allah ... First [the remains of the crowd] began beating up the prisoners, whom they dubbed razakars and who were bound like chickens ... Mr Saddiqui's Mukti guards ... fixed bayonets and charged at the prisoners ... They stabed [sic] them through the neck, the chest, the stomach. One of the guards, dismayed at having no bayonet, shot one of the prisoners in the stomach with his sten gun.
  6. 1 2 3 Lifschultz, Lawrence (1979). Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution. Zed Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-905762-07-X. Kader Siddiqui appalled both Bengalis and foreigners when, in public, shortly after the liberation of Dacca, he personally bayoneted three alleged collaborators to death. The entire incident was filmed from start to finish by foreign film crews whom he had invited to the spectacle. He returned to Tangail after independence and became the recipient of substantial Awami League patronage. Following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975, Siddiqui and his followers began to offer resistance to the post-coup authorities headed by Khondakar Mustaque. Elements identifying themselves with Siddiqui gradually withdrew to India and, with the active and direct assistance of the Indian Government's Border Security Force, set up training camps in the Assam border area.
  7. ↑ "THE TANGAIL LANDINGS A signal for victory". The Daily Star. 2017-03-26. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
  8. ↑ Saikia, Yasmin (2011). Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. Duke University Press. p. 257. ISBN 0-8223-5038-6.
  9. ↑ "Wanted Kader Siddiqui waiting for police at home". bdnews24.com. 2014-11-13. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
  10. ↑ "Latif expelled from AL". The Daily Star. 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
  11. ↑ "Four Siddiqui brothers to run in Tangail-3,4,5,8". The Daily Star. 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
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