# Shahidullah Kaiser

Shahidullah Kaiser (16 February 1927 – disappeared 14 December 1971) was a Bangladeshi novelist and writer. He was awarded Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1969, Ekushey Padak in 1983, and the Independence Day Award in 1998.

## Personal life

Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah was born on 16 February 1927 to a Bengali Muslim family in the village of Majupur in Sonagazi, Feni subdivision, then part of the Noakhali district of the Bengal Presidency. His father, Mawlana Mohammad Habibullah, was a professor at the Calcutta Alia Madrasa and later the Dacca Alia Madrasa. Kaiser studied at Amirabad BC Laha High School in Sonagazi. He also studied at the Presidency College Calcutta and obtained a bachelor's degree in economics with honours. Later, he enrolled in a Master of Arts program at the University of Calcutta but did not complete the degree. At some point, he adopted the name Shahidullah Kaiser. His wife, Panna, was an author and novelist. She served as a member of the parliament for the Awami League government from 1996 to 2001. Kaiser's daughter, Shomi Kaiser, is a television actress. His son, Amitav Kaiser, is a banker.

## Politics and journalism

Kaiser was active in politics and cultural movements from his student days. Following the formation of Pakistan in 1947, he joined the provincial Communist Party of East Pakistan. He started working as a journalist in 1949 with the Ittefaq in Dhaka. In 1952, he participated actively in the Language Movement. For his political role in the movement for protection of Bengali language, Kaiser was arrested on 3 June 1952. He was later jailed for three and a half years. Following his release in 1955, he was again arrested and jailed on a political crackdown on activists. A few years later, he was released. In 1958, Kaiser joined as an associate editor of The Sangbad – a Bengali language daily – where he worked for the rest of his life. When the military coup of 1958 put Ayub Khan in power, and martial law was proclaimed, Kaiser was arrested again on 14 October 1958 and remained in jail for four years till his release in September 1962.

## Disappearance

Kaiser collected medicine and food and delivered those to the posts, such as one being Sufia Kamal's house, from where the freedom fighters picked those up for their training outpost.
At the end of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, the Pakistan Army and its local collaborators initiated a plan for killing the leading Bengali intellectuals and blaming it on the Pakistan Army to incite rebellion. As part of it, Kaiser was rounded up on 14 December 1971. He never returned, nor was his body ever found. It is assumed that he was executed along with other intellectuals. His brother, Zahir Raihan, a notable filmmaker, also disappeared while searching for Kaiser.
In early December 1971, Kaiser cautioned Sufia Kamal to leave Dhaka, but he himself did not leave and was caught by the Pakistani Army.
On 3 November 2013, Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, a Muslim leader based in London, and Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, based in the United States, were sentenced in absentia after the court found that they were involved in the abduction and murders of 18 people – nine Dhaka University teachers, six journalists, including Kaiser and three physicians – in December 1971.
Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin denied the charges in an interview aired by Al Jazeera in August 2013.