Two freedom fighters in Pirojpur have now claimed that Manik Poshari, the plaintiff in the case against Maulana Delawar Hossain Sayedee, was a fake freedom fighter. They say the Awami League government of the time recognised him as a freedom fighter because he testified against Sayedee.
After Manik died on 24 October, a dispute arose over his guard of honour with state honours and his burial. The two freedom fighters spoke out after Jamaat claimed he was a fake freedom fighter.
Abdus Salam Baten, a freedom fighter from Pirojpur, said Manik Poshari was made a freedom fighter as a reward for testifying against Maulana Delawar Hossain Sayedee, and that Sayedee was never a Razakar.
“In 1971 people did not know him. He was not even in Pirojpur. Sayedee was a good preacher, an Islamic speaker of international fame,” he said. “Because Manik Poshari is a gazetted freedom fighter, the police administration had to give him a guard of honour. The government of the time made him a freedom fighter as a reward for giving false testimony against Sayedee. Sayedee’s followers asked that no guard of honour be given. We also know he was a fake freedom fighter.”
Another freedom fighter, Mirza Zahirul Haque, said a case was filed against Delawar Hossain Sayedee under the Awami League government. Under pressure or however it was, Manik Poshari gave false testimony against Sayedee, he said, and was then made a freedom fighter, with no verification afterwards. Since he is still a gazetted freedom fighter, the government’s rules meant he would be given a guard of honour after his death, he said, and that may be why Jamaat objected to it.
Manik Poshari, 87, died on the morning of 24 October at his son-in-law’s house in Tungipara, Gopalganj. At midday his body was brought to the Pirojpur Sadar upazila parishad grounds. Amid disputes over the guard of honour and burial, he was given a guard of honour with state honours at the police lines in the afternoon. His body was taken to his home at about 1am and buried that night.
Source: Daily Jugantor
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report