In Remembrance

Today is the first death anniversary of my youngest paternal uncle (chotto kaka) who breathed his last on  November 21, 2015. He is survived by his two sons, two daughters, grandchildren and a host of friends and relatives.
With his death, the nation lost an illustrious son who dedicated his whole life to the cause of the people. Sadly, and at personal level, the last lamp of my father's generation went out that day. Death is always unacceptable, especially that of freedom fighters to whom we owe our existence as a nation.  
My uncle Major General (Rtd) M Shamsul Huq was a veteran freedom fighter, a former minister and the first Director General of the Medical Services (DGMS) of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. Born in 1931 in village Sugandhi under Matlab upazila of Chandpur district, he hailed from a low middle-class family. He was a meritorious student. He studied at local Sengarchar School and Dhaka College. After completing  his M.B.B.S degree, he joined the then Pakistan Army as a doctor in 1957.
He was imbibed with the spirit of serving humanity form  his childhood and so he used to stand beside the people in any crisis. During the period preceding the war of liberation, he was posted in Dhaka as a recruiting medical officer. I was then 22, studying Economics (Honours) in Dhaka University. I used to attend meetings at Bot-tola in those tumultous days and visited chotto kaka off and on in his office or his residence at Nakhal para during the days of mass upheaval of 1969 and 1970. While exchanging views on the happenings of those days, I noticed a sense of anger in him against the then Pakistan Army for their repression and oppression of the people of this part of the then Pakistan.
As the brutal Pakistan army launched an unprovoked attack on the innocent Bengalis on the dark night of March 25, 1971, he along with his elder brother late Siddiqur Rahman, my father, left for India to join the liberation forces. He worked there in Bangladesh's Army medical core under the leadership of Mujibnagar government, particularly under late General Osmani. After independence he participated in another struggle - the building of a modern Medical Services for the army. He was the first Director General of Medical Services.
 In the course of his long chequered career, he was minister of health, planning and commerce and also served as chairman of Sonali Bank. The world-acclaimed Drug Policy-'82 was implemented when he was the health minister.  
He was an honest, sincere and humble person and for that he rose to the peak of popularity not only in his constituency but also across the country. May Allah rest his soul in peace and give us all the strength to bear the loss of his absence.
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