| 'I won against Pakistan but lost to poverty' Mushfique Wadud searches out Kakon Bibi, a Khasia woman and wife of a Pakistani soldier who helped the Mukti Bahini win over 20 battles until her eventual capture, torture, abandonment and poverty...
It is 1971. A secret midnight meeting is going on at Dowarapara Thana, Chhatak Upazilla of Sunamganj district. Silence and darkness permeate. The plan is to capture the enemy camp at Tengratilla. The Pakistani soldiers from this camp have been carrying out attacks on the Mukti Bahini for too long. But the Mukti Bahini commander has no information about the capacity or numbers of the enemy. Everyone at the meeting is tense. No one speaks. The long silence is broken by a woman. 'I will get you information about the Tengratilla camp,' she says. 'But how will you do that?' the commander asks her. She is the same woman who tends to the wounded freedom fighters. 'I will go there disguised as a beggar and collect information for you.' She was successful in her task, and with her help, Mukti Bahini was able to capture Tengratilla camp. That woman was Kakon Bibi. Like a professional spy, she would go out, sometimes as a beggar, sometimes a hawker, and sometimes a pedestrian, and collect information about the Pakistani camp's capacity. During the war of liberation, Dowarapara area was an important front for freedom fighters in Sylhet as the area was at the border. With the help of Kakon Bibi, the freedom fighters of this area defeated the Pakistani soldiers. Kakon Bibi provided strong support in 20 operations of Mukti Bahini in this area. In the East Banglabazaar fight, in the Dowarabazaar fight, the Tengratilla fight, the Roshlay fight, the Betigoan fight, the Kandigoan fight and the Mohabbatpur fight, Kakon Bibi was the main reason for Mukti Bahini's success. Kakon Bibi maintained contact with Sector Commander Mir Shawkat Ali and supplied important information to him. 'I knew that one bullet could easily end my life as I wandered as a beggar, but the Pakistan Army's inhumane activities stirred me to do what I did,' she says. Kakon Bibi now lives in Lokhipur village, Dowarapara Thana in Sunamganj district. She is difficult to reach. After arriving in Sylhet, we had to go to Chhatok of Sunamganj district. From Chhatok we went to Dowarapara by boat and then by CNG auto-rickshaw. From there to Kakon Bibi's home in Lokhipur, there is no easy route. Part of the road was traversed by motorbike and the rest on foot. In a remote corner of the village of Lokhipur, Kakon Bibi's home is situated. She was homeless earlier until she got a tiny plot of land from the government. She lives in this house with her daughter, son-in-law and two grand-daughters. We arrived at her house at around 4pm. She had not eaten lunch. 'It is no exception for me. Many a day I stay without having a single meal, as I have no son and my son-in-law is the only earning member of my family,' she says. Known as 'Khasia Mukti beti' in this area, Kakon Bibi was born in Tripura, India. She belongs to the Khasia ethnic minority. She had an affair with a Bangladeshi, Shahed Ali. For him, she migrated to Bangladesh from India. At the same time she converted to Islam and took the name Nurjahan Begum. Kakon Bibi is her nickname. She then married Abdul Majid Khan, a Pakistani border security jawan. The rest of her family members remained in India. Even now her three brothers live in India, financially much better off than she. 'Her brothers wanted to take her to India but she refused to leave Bangladesh,' says Sokhina, Kakon Bibi's daughter. When asked why she did not go to India though she was living in poverty here, Kakon Bibi says 'I love Bangladesh. Though I was born in India, Bangladesh is my soul. I fought for Bangladesh and I will never leave this country.' In 1971, when the war of independence started, Kakon Bibi could not get any news about her husband Abdul Majid Khan. She became anxious. In the meantime, she met some members of the Mukti Bahini. When she was asked to work for Mukti Bahini she agreed, thinking that she might find out her husband's whereabouts while visiting different places with them. Then she became a spy for the Mukti Bahini. Initially when she was asked why she came to the Pakistani camp, she told them that she was in search of her husband, Abdul Majid Khan. The Pakistani officials contacted other camps with the wireless network to ask whether there was a soldier by the name of Abdul Majid Khan and learned that Kakon Bibi was Majid Khan's wife. Then the Pakistani Army officials requested her to work for them. Kakon Bibi agreed, and did not demur when they asked her to find out about the Mukti Bahini. They gave her a document that would verify her mission with other Pakistani camps and said 'If Pakistani soldiers find you, they will help you when they see this document. But if you are caught by Mukti Bahini soldiers, you must eat this paper.' 'I told them that I would follow their instructions exactly. They trusted me,' Kakon Bibi says. She assured the Pakistani soldiers that she would work for and act as their spy on the Mukti Bahini, but even the written document helped her in her role of double agent. 'They thought I supported the Pakistani army as my husband was a Pakistani soldier, but I did the opposite,' she says. Once she was caught, the Pakistani Army showed her no pity. 'The Pakistani soldiers tortured me by pressing white-hot iron into my flesh, all over my body. Till today, I can feel the burns,' she says. When the war ended, her husband returned to Pakistan but did not take Kakon Bibi with him, as she was an ally of Mukti Bahini. To support herself financially, she started a grocery shop. She and her daughter spent days and nights in this shop. But within time she lost her shop due to lack of capital. Then she started to work on farming lands. When she could not manage her livelihood anymore, she started begging – the same profession she had pretended to take up to help the Mukti Bahini. 'Finding no other way, I had to become a beggar. This is also my fight. A fight against poverty,' she says. The brave woman who was so vital in freeing the country now leads a miserable life. 'I was successful in the fight against the Pakistan Army, but I failed in my fight against the poverty,' she says. 'Now I cannot even manage two meals a day.' However, Kakon Bibi is not a beggar now – though perilously close to one. After the publication of a report on her begging status in some dailies, the government and some other organisations extended aid to her in 1997. But the help ended there. Now she is almost back to her begging life. According to her, as a freedom fighter she now receives Tk 5000 every six months from the government. This amount is not enough for her to live on. 'I do not have a son. My son-in-law is the only earning member of my family. He is a van driver. In this profession he does not get enough money to manage our five member family. So we are struggling to survive,' she says. 'Some days ago I went to the local Union Parishad Chairman Amirul's office to collect VGF card. He said "Hey woman, get out of my office. You won't get anything from us,"' she says. 'I risked my life for this country, and now I must receive foul words like "Get out" from Amirul,' she says with tears. Kakon Bibi's daughter Sokhina says that some days ago the local Union Parishad chairman made a list of freedom fighters but Kakon Bibi was not on that list. 'When I asked why my mother is not on the list, the chairman Amirul told us "You are the government's people. You won't get any help and won't be listed",' she says. Independence Day will have many programmes and many people celebrating, but on that day, Kakon Bibi may not have a single meal. 'How much longer will I fight against poverty? At the age of 85 I want to live a peaceful life. I want to live a poverty-free life,' Kakon Bibi says. |
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