BNP Secretary General and valiant freedom fighter Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said a bloodstained struggle for freedom of the people of a country can never fail.

"The struggle for freedom of the people of a country never fails. We also feel that the Liberation War, as a people's war, will never fail," he told BSS in an exclusive interview on the eve of the Independence Day.

"Due to my active participation in this war, my family members thought that I might not return alive. But I never felt like that. We were always very optimistic - it might take a long time, but Bangladesh will definitely be independent," added Mirza Fakhrul.

Asked whether they got the country they wanted and for which they had fought the war, he said, "No, we did not get the Bangladesh we fought for. We were fighting for the country not only from March 26, but also from much before. Since then, we had been dreaming that a social system without discrimination and exploitation would be established. But today we are not in that place."

Revisiting the memory lane of his role during the Liberation War, he said, "When the Liberation War started, I had just passed my Masters. I was 25 or 26 years old. I was in Thakurgaon then. After the crackdown, there was a BDR (EPR) commander in Thakurgaon who was a West Pakistani. Most of the rest were Bengalis.

After the night of the 25th March, the BDR imposed a curfew there. At that time, lakhs of people came out on the streets.

The firing started from the morning of the 25th March. Three or four people were martyred in the firing. Then everyone went underground. We were involved in the pre-liberation movement in the then Thakurgaon Mahakuma.

We also went underground and took shelter in a house. Then we came to know that resistance had started in different districts of the country."

He said on the night of the 26th, they first heard Ziaur Rahman's announcement (of independence). On the 27th, they heard the full announcement.

"Hearing this, we all came out on the streets. We also started calling people to come out. Then we went to the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) there and told him to open the locker where were their arms. After opening it, we took some arms from there.

Later, a portion of the BDR rebelled. They also took shelter with us in the same place. With their cooperation, we cut the bridge that came from the highway road coming from Saidpur towards Thakurgaon so that the Pakistani army could not come from Saidpur.

Towards dawn, a part of the Bengal Regiment came. The name of the officer of the Bengal Regiment at that time was Captain Nasser. Later, he became the NSI Chief during the tenure of Major Ziaur Rahman."

Mirza Fakhrul said that a command was formed under the leadership of the then BDR commander of Dinajpur, Major Nazrul and they also took some defensive measures with various weapons.

"At that time, we established a 'control room' in Thakurgaon city. Arms training for the Liberation War was also arranged.

On April 14, the Pak Army got organized at Syedpur and started counter-shelling. They started attacking the entire Dinajpur with mortar shells. When too many shells started falling, our headquarters was destroyed.

The Bengal Regiment of the PDR left Thakurgaon and went to the Panchagarh border. The place is very close to the Indian border. Everyone started taking shelter there.

But we did not find shelter there, we crossed the Nagar River through the Thukrabari border next to us and went to India. My entire family also went to India. That is, we who were preparing for the Liberation War all went to that side."