Hamidur finally sleeps in his dreamland

Dhaka, Dec 11 (bdprem.com) –Four decades after his death, teenage war hero Bir Shreshthho Sepoy Hamidur Rahman was laid to rest in his homeland with highest state honours Tuesday. Before the coffin was downed at noon at the Martyred Intellectuals' Graveyard in Mirpur, a gun salute was given to the youngest of the seven war heroes posthumously conferred highest gallantry award in the ceremonial burial in presence of the three chiefs of staff. Hamidur, aged only 17 when he died, was buried beside Bir Shreshthho Matiur Rahman who mortal remains were brought from Pakistan last year. State rituals for Hamidur started at the National Parade Square in Dhaka in the morning. President Iajuddin Ahmed and chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed joined the event. The remains of Hamidur, dug up from a grave in Tripura, were brought back to Bangladesh, 36 years after his martyrdom—when he died fighting Pakistani forces. The coffin—draped in the national flag—reached Dhaka in the morning. A motorcade carrying the coffin started its journey to Dhaka from Comilla cantonment at 6:05am, which reached the National Parade Square at 9:35am. The liberation war affairs secretary and Armed Forces Division officials received Hamidur's coffin in Dhaka. As the 33 Infantry Division soldiers carried the coffin to Dhaka, thousands of people crowded the highway to pay their respects to the war hero. The body of Hamidur, first buried in India almost four decades ago, was exhumed from a grave in Hatimarachara village in Tripura and taken back home. The coffin of the 17-year-old freedom fighter was draped in a Bangladeshi flag and handed over with full military honours. After Hamidur died in 1971 raiding a Pakistani military post, fellow fighters carried away his body and buried it in a village in neighbouring India which supported Bangladesh's War of Independence. Hamidur is the youngest of seven war heroes posthumously conferred Bangladesh's highest gallantry award for their role in the freedom struggle.