24th Infantry Division (Bangladesh)

Last updated
24th Infantry Division
24th Infantry Division of BD Army.png
Insignia of 24th Infantry Division
Active1976-present
CountryFlag of Bangladesh.svg  Bangladesh
BranchFlag of the Bangladesh Army.svg  Bangladesh Army
Type Infantry
Size Division (military)
Garrison/HQ Chittagong Cantonment
Commanders
Current
commander
Major General Mir Mushfiqur Rahman
Notable
commanders
Major General Atiqur Rahman
Major General Abul Manzoor
Major General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan
Major General Saiful Abedin

24th Infantry Division is a formation of the Bangladesh Army, headquartered in Chittagong Cantonment, Chittagong District. It is the largest division of the Bangladesh Army. [1]

Contents

History

In 1972, five brigades of Bangladesh Army were formed. Among them, 65th Infantry Brigade was headquartered in Chittagong. Later in 1976, the brigade was upgraded as the 24th Infantry Division and Maj. Gen. Atiqur Rahman was its first commander.[ citation needed ]

On 3 April 2016, Major General Shafiqur Rahman was replaced as general officer commanding (GOC) by Major general Jahangir Kabir Talukder. [2]

The division covers the Chittagong Hill Tracts. 24th Infantry Division is the largest infantry division that comprises 33% of the personnel of the Bangladesh Army. [3]

Components

Operation Dragon Drive

Post-independence, Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party emerged as one of the main opponents of the new Awami League-government. In April 1973, the Purba Banglar Jatiya Mukti Front, a coalition of 11 groups, was formed. After the formation of the front, the party initiated a campaign of armed struggle against the Bangladeshi state. The party was active in the Dhaka, Barisal, Faridpur, Mymensingh, Tangail, Chittagong, Sylhet and Comilla districts. It carried out assassinations of Awami League cadres and attacks on police stations throughout the country. [4] [5]

At the request of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then 65th Infantry Brigade commander Brig. (later Maj. Gen.) Dastgir took over counter-insurgency operations in his command area and led Bangladesh's first successful combined army, navy, air force military operation called Operation Dragon Drive in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region against Shorbohara separatist insurgents in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.[ citation needed ]

Assassination of Ziaur Rahman

On 29 May 1981, Zia went on tour to Chittagong to help resolve an intra-party political dispute in the regional BNP. Zia and his entourage stayed overnight at the Chittagong Circuit House in Chittagong Cantonment. In the early hours of the morning of 30 May, he was assassinated by a group of army officers led by GOC of 24th Infantry Division Major General Abul Manzoor. Also killed were six of his bodyguards and two aides. [6]

Manzoor was killed shortly after while being captured. [7] 18 officers were brought before a military tribunal, 13 were sentenced to death whilst 5 were given varying prison sentences a hasty trial in a military court. [8]

Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict

The Chittagong Hill Tracts Conflict was the political conflict and armed struggle between the Government of Bangladesh by the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (United People's Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts) and its armed wing, the Shanti Bahini over the issue of autonomy and the rights of the tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

The Shanti Bahini launched an insurgency against government forces in 1977. 24th Infantry Division of Bangladesh Army took part in this counter-insurgency operation. The conflict continued for twenty years until the government and the PCJSS signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord in 1997. [9] [10] In February 1998, Shantu Larma formally disbanded the Shanti Bahini. Almost 1,500 fighters surrendered their weapons. [11] According to official figure more than 8,500 rebels, soldiers and civilians have been killed during two decades of insurgency. The number of civilians killed is estimated at 2,500. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bangladesh Armed Forces</span> Combined military forces of Bangladesh

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shanti Bahini</span> Buddhist terrorist organisation in Bangladesh

The Shanti Bahini was the armed wing of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti in Bangladesh. It is considered an insurgent group in Bangladesh. The Shanti Bahini was made out of mostly members from the Chakma tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti</span> Bangladeshi political party

The Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti is a left wing political party formed to represent the people and indigenous tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. Since its inception in 1972, the PCJSS has fought for autonomy and the recognition of the ethnic identity and rights of the indigenous tribes of the Hill Tracts. Its military arm, the Shanti Bahini was used to fight government forces and Bengali settlers in the Hill Tracts. A peace accord was signed in 1997 led to the disarmament of the Shanti Bahini and enabled the PCJSS to return to mainstream politics.

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The Proletarian Party of East Bengal also known as Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party, commonly referred to as Sarbahara, and abbreviated as PBSP, is an outlawed Marxist-Leninist-Maoist communist political party in Bangladesh, which aims to overthrow the Bangladeshi state by starting a new democratic revolution through protracted people's war. It was formed by Siraj Sikder on 3 June 1971, in the Barisal district amidst the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh.

Muhammed Abul ManzurBU was a Bangladeshi military officer who commanded the Bangladesh Forces operations in Sector 8 during the Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan in 1971. He was allegedly involved in the assassination of the then-president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman. The erstwhile chief of army staff and alleged mastermind of Rahman's assassination, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, had put a standing shoot-to-kill order on Manzur's life—he was killed shortly after being captured at the border. About a year later, Ershad initiated a bloodless coup d'état and took over the central government, holding power until 1990.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manabendra Narayan Larma</span> Bangladeshi politician (1939-1983)

Manabendra Narayan Larma was a Bangladeshi politician and member of parliament. A leading proponent of the rights of the people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, he was the founding leader of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti and its armed wing, the Shanti Bahini.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict</span> Conflict between the Bangladeshi government and tribal insurgents

The insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, also known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict, refers to a political and armed conflict that occurred in Bangladesh in two phases:

On 25 March 1971, the Pakistani military, supported by paramilitary units, launched the military operation to pacify the insurgent-held areas of East Pakistan, which led to a prolonged conflict with the Bengali Mukti Bahini. Although conventional in nature during March–May 1971, it soon turned into a guerrilla insurgency from June of that year. Indian Army had not directly supported the Bengali resistance but had launched Operation Jackpot to support the insurgency from May 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army</span> Pakistani military unit during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War

The Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army was a corps-sized military formation headed by a lieutenant-general, who was designated the Commander Eastern Command. After the partition of India by United Kingdom, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was divided into two territories separated by 1,000 miles (1,600 km). Most of the assets of the Pakistan armed forces were stationed in West Pakistan; the role of the Pakistan armed forces in East Pakistan was to hold that part of the country until the Pakistani forces defeated India in the west. The Pakistan Army created the Eastern Command, with one commander in the rank of Lieutenant General responsible for the command. The armed forces, had drawn up a plan to defend Dhaka by concentrating all their forces along the Dhaka Bowl.

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References

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  5. "Radical Politics". Banglapedia . Archived from the original on 2017-07-06. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  6. "Bangladesh: Death at Night". Time. 8 June 1981. p. 41. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2006. President Ziaur Rahman, only 45, lay dead with two aides and six bodyguards in a government rest house in Chittagong. All were reportedly shot by an assassination squad, led by [Major General] Manjur, in the early morning hours Saturday
  7. Codron, Jérémie (2007-10-18). "Putting Factions 'Back in' the Civil-Military Relations EquationGenesis, Maturation and Distortion of the Bangladeshi Army". South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal. doi: 10.4000/samaj.230 . ISSN   1960-6060. Archived from the original on 2017-04-17. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
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  9. "South Asia | Chittagong marks peace anniversary". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2019-01-07. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  10. "Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, 1997". Banglapedia. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  11. Fortna, Virginia Page (2008-07-01). Does Peacekeeping Work?: Shaping Belligerents' Choices after Civil War. Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-1400837731. Archived from the original on 2020-12-28. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
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