During the war of liberation he was the Deputy Magistrate and Treasury Officer of Pirojpur subdivision. Pakistan severed ties with the state, handed over the treasury weapons to the freedom fighters and joined the liberation war directly.
As a result, he was captured by the Pakistani forces and their local collaborator Razakars and subjected to brutal torture. He was tied to the back of a Pakistani army jeep and taken around the city of Pirojpur. Later, his body was thrown into the river Baleshwar. I was talking about a martyred intellectual Saif Mizanur Rahman.
The eldest son of prominent lawyer of Narail Maulavi Afsar Uddin Ahmed and Begum Matia Ahmed Maulvi Sahil Bari Mohammad Mizanur Rahman - S, B, M Mizanur Rahman was born and brought up at Saif Villa on the present Saif Mizan Road in Narail in Narail town. His father Maulvi Afsar Uddin Ahmed advocate and founder president of Narail sub division Awami League was posthumously awarded the Ekushey Medal in 2021 for his contribution in our Language Movement. He studied at the then Narail Sub-Divisional High School and passed matriculation in 1956. He passed IA from Narail Victoria College in 1970. As a boy, he witnessed the language movement and participation of his father Afsaruddin Ahmed and elder sister Sufia Begum Bulbul. This is how he grew up in a family political environment.
While studying Economics at Dhaka University, he got involved in Chhatra League politics and gradually rose to the important policy-making level of the organization due to his talent, ability and concentration.
Saif Mizan, a resident student of Fazlul Haque Hall, was arrested in connection with the anti-martial law movement and in 1972, an arrest warrant was issued against him for being one of the leaders of the student movement against the report of Hamudur Rahman Education Commission. He was elected as magazine editor and literary editor of Fazlul Haque Hall Chhatra Sangsad. Later in the 1964 Daksu election, he was the VP candidate of Mizan-Razzak Parishad in the Student Parliament election of Fazlul Haque Hall. He was an elected member of the Central Student Parliament of Dhaka University. He was one of the vice-presidents of the then East Pakistan Chhatra League. In protest of Governor Monem Khan's participation in the convocation of Dhaka University in 1964, he hurled bricks at his car and a picture of his hand with the bricks was published in the daily Ittefak the next day. While a final year student of MA (1964), he decided to go on an educational tour to the then West Pakistan. According to a memoir written by Dr. Mohammad Farasuddin (ex governor), a close friend of Saif Mizan, before the study tour, the chairman of the department, Prof. Nurul Islam, in a briefing in his office room before the visit, made a request, 'Mizan and Menon (Rashed Khan Menon) not to quarrel with any Pakistani or to warm his head and not to touch anyone. During the visit, there were discussions about exploitation and economic inequality, but no clashes or fights.
Another day, Dr. Farasuddin said that Monem Khan, who was given the title of "True Pakistani" by the military ruler, made a speech against the interests and culture of the Bengalis. At Tezgaon airport when a group of students was questioning Monem Khan about his speech Abdur Razzak and Rashed Khan Menon. The next day when the picture was published in the newspapers, it was seen that the picture of Saif Mizan was beside the two top leaders. Due to these photos and negative reports from various agencies, Saif Mizan had to fight to get a government job. Mizan did not get a job even after passing the Central Superior Service (CSP) examination in Pakistan. Later, with the intervention of Dr. MN Hooda, Mizan got a job in the administration of the provincial government, but in order to make the dream of independent Bengal a reality, 'he had to give his life in his job, "said his friend Rashed Khan Menon.
Among his classmates and close friends who later contributed at the national level were: Dr. Mohammad Farasuddin (later Governor of Bangladesh Bank), A. Razzak (later AL Leader), Rashed Khan Menon, cousin and classmate Haider Akbar Khan Rano, Dr. Ferdous Ahmed Qureshi, Poet Asad Chowdhury, Rashid Haider and in Narail- Advocate Mollah Khabir Uddin, retired district and sessions judge Aditya Kumar Biswas, Principal Syed Harun or Rashid, Advocate Makbul Hossain Sikdar are notable. Outside of formal education, he had a special interest in literature and economics, and writing on these subjects. While a student of Dhaka University and later he wrote many books in Bengali and English.
Among them are Economic Development, Applied Economy and Economy of Pakistan became famous. Among the few plays written by him are Prabal, Pratibimba, Anek Tarar Swar, and in these he has also acted in Dhaka University, Pirojpur and other places. The late public leader Abdur Razzak wrote in an article, "Mizan is one of my best friends. On the streets, in processions, he was a constant companion of the organization. He could have risked his life without hesitation for ideological friends. "
During the war of liberation Shaheed Mizanur Rahman was the Deputy Magistrate of Pirojpur. At the outset of the war, he encouraged the people and the police force to build strong resistance against the Pakistani aggressors. But that resistance was broken in front of the Pakistani army equipped with modern weapons. That was May 5, 1971, the then occupying force, with the direct cooperation of Razakars, Al-Badr forces captured the then SDO of Pirojpur, the SDPO and the Treasury officer Saif Mizanur Rahman and declared Saif Mizan an alleged criminal of treason. It has been learnt from the people of Pirojpur at that time that Saif Mizanur Rahman was tied him to the wheels of Pak Army jeep and drove him around Pirojpur. Attempts were made him to utter, 'Pakistan Zindabad' but instead, he chanted, 'Joybangla, Joybangla sounds, the Pak army shot and killed Mizanur Rahman and threw him in the river. This valiant hero of freedom fell in the lap of motherland.. Even today the bodies of these immortal martyrs have not been found out. At least one of his killers name Delwar Hossain Saydee has been tried and sentenced life time imprisonment. The Government of Bangladesh issued a commemorative postage stamp in memory of Saif Mizan on the day of Martyred Intellectuals in 1996 and awarded the highest state award 'Swadhinata Puraskar' in 2014.
The writer is an Assistant Professor of English of Abdul Hye City College, Narail. Email -malaynrl@gmail.com
