# Siraj Sikder

Sirajul Huq Sikder (Bengali: সিরাজুল হক সিকদার; 27 September 1944 – 2 January 1975), better known as Siraj Sikder (Bengali: সিরাজ সিকদার), was a Bangladeshi revolutionary, engineer and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist insurgent.

## Early life

Sikder was born on 27 September 1944 in Village Lakarta, Upazilla Bhedarganj, Shariatpur District, British India. His father was Abdur Razzaq Sikder, and belonged to a Bengali Muslim zamindar family in Chhaygaon. His sister Shamim Sikder was an eminent sculptor and a professor at the Dhaka University Faculty of Arts. After passing the matriculation examination from Barisal Zilla School in 1959, he was admitted into Barisal Brojomohun College in 1961 for ISc. He obtained an Civil Engineering degree from the East Pakistan University of Engineering and Technology (now BUET) in 1967.
While he was a student he became a member of East Pakistan Student Union. In 1967, he was elected vice-president of the central committee of Student Union and later that year he joined the C & B Department of the government as an engineer. Three months later he left his job to start a private company, named Engineering Limited in Teknaf.

## Political activity

On 8 January 1968, along with like-minded activists, Sikder formed a clandestine organisation named Purba Bangla Sramik Andolon (East Bengal Workers Movement EBWM) with an objective to lead a struggle against the revisionism of the existing "Communist" organisations and to form a revolutionary Communist Party. This initiative brought forward a thesis that East Bengal is a colony of Pakistan and that the principal contradiction in the society is between the bureaucratic bourgeoisie and feudalists of Pakistan on one hand, and the people of East Bengal on the other hand. Only the independence struggle to form an "independent, democratic, peaceful, non-aligned, progressive" People's Republic of East Bengal, free also from the oppression of US imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism and Indian Expansionism could lead the society forward towards socialism and communism. In late 1968, Sikder left his job to establish the Mao Tse Tung Research Center in Dhaka but it was later closed down by the Pakistani government. Sikder became a lecturer at the Technical Teachers Training College in Dhaka.
In the meantime of war, at a liberated base area named Pearabagan at Bhimruly in Jhalokati District in the southern part of the country, on 3 June 1971, Sikder founded a new party named Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party (Proletarian Party of East Bengal) by ideology of Marxism and Mao Tsetung Thought (not "Maoism", during the 1960s the followers of Mao-line used to identify their ideology as Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought). At the beginning of the war, he went to Barisal and he declared that as a free living space and making it his base attempted to initiate his revolution throughout other places. After the Independence of Bangladesh he turned against the Sheikh Mujib government. In April 1973, he formed Purba Banglar Jatiya Mukti Front ("National Liberation Front of East Bengal") and declared war on the Bangladeshi Government. Under his leadership, the Sarbahara party carried out attacks against money lenders and landlords.

## Death

In 1975, Shiraj Shikdar confronted Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, demanding action against corruption and criticizing his policies. This led to a violent response where Sheikh Kamal shot Shiraj in front of his father, followed by further assault from others. Eventually, Sheikh Mujib and his associates decided to kill Shiraj. He was taken to JRB headquarters, tortured, and shot on January 2nd. Sheikh Mujib later referred to Siraj Sikder's death in Parliament, uttering a rhetorical question, "কোথায় সেই সিরাজ শিকদার?!" [English Translation roughly implies: "Where is that Siraj Shikder?!"] in a manner perceived by some as boasting and triumphant, implying his involvement and asserting his power, which has been interpreted as reflective of a dictatorial approach. Shiraj's father tried to file a case, but due to the oppressive regime, the police refused to accept it.