Jagat Joity Das

Das was born in Jalsukha village Ajmiriganj, Habiganj District, Bangladesh in 1959. His father was Jitendra Das. Jagot Joity joined into the movement against Ayub Khan junta in school life. In 1968 he passed metric examination and entered into Sunamganj College. He was also an active member of student union (Menon group) in the college. In 1969 he went to Guwahati, India. There he joined in Naupong College, Guwahati and learned about guerrilla warfare.

He received training in Meghalaya, India Eco-1 training camp and joined guerrilla group of Mukti Bahini after completion of it. Das operated In Sunamganj Netrokona Habiganj river or 'Haor' area. This area was declared as Sector 7. He knew Hindi, English and local language of Guwahati and this was helpful to contact with Indian army easily. His group was famous to the local people as Das party. It was known from Abdul Kaium, one fellow commander of Das that the name of 'Das party' was approved in a different document of Bangladesh Liberation Army. He operated many guerrilla missions such as Paharpur operation, Baniachong police station attack, Badalpur operation and became a heroic figure to liberate the haor areas of Sylhet, Kishorganj and Netrokona from the control of Pakistani military and its collaborators Rajakars. Pakistan Army was using Dhaka-Sylhet Highway and railway to supply weapons and bullets to the north eastern command. When the Muktijoddhas conducted number of guerrilla operations, the Pakistanis chose the river route as supply route. Two river routes, one from Bhairab via Moulavibazar to Sylhet and another one from Habiganj via Azmiriganj to Sunamganj, became lifelines for the Pakistan army. To stop them in the waterways, guerrilla group leaders formed a special team selecting some brave fighters under Sector-5, led by breavheart Jagat Joity. In 16 October 1971 Das and other fighters of Das party launched a massive attack and destroyed a burge of Pak force. Such successful operation cut off all connections of the Pakistan Army placed in Sylhet region with Dhaka. The agitated army officers and Rajakars put a price on Jagat Jyoti’s head.

16 November 1971 Das party attacked by Pakistani army and decided to retreat. Cornered Das ordered his teammates to flee and he himself tried to confront the troop along with his comrade Ilius with two LMGs. Other members of Mukti Bahini got the safe passage and fled from the area while he made the enemy busy. Afterwards Das became wounded by bullet and died. His fellow fighter Illius also became severely injured but managed to escape finally. In evening Pak army and local rajakars retrieved his dead body near the bank of river and hanged his lifeless body with an electric pillar of the local Ajmiriganj bazar.

In 1972 he was declared to be awarded as Bir Sreshtho, the highest gallantry award by Bangladesh Betar as the first civilian freedom fighter. But actually the Bangladesh government awarded him as Bir Bikram and gave it almost after two decades. Communist activist and novelist Anjali Lahiri wrote a novel named Jagatjoity which was published in 2003 in Dhaka. Notable theatre personality of Bangladesh Smt. Ruma Modok stagged a drama in memoirs of freedom fighter Jagat Joity Das.