Abu Osman Chowdhury

Abu Osman Chowdhury
Native name	আবু ওসমান চৌধুরী
Born	(1936-01-01)1 January 1936 British India (Now, Chittagong, Bangladesh)
Died	5 September 2020(2020-09-05) (aged 84) Dhaka, Bangladesh
Buried	Banani Army Graveyard
Allegiance	Bangladesh  Pakistan (Before 1971)
Service/branch	Pakistan Army (Before 1971)  Bangladesh Army
Years of service	1958-1976
Rank	Lieutenant colonel
Unit	East Bengal Regiment
Commands held	Commander of Sector – VIII CO of 6th East Bengal Regiment
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

Abu Osman Chowdhury (1 January 1936 – 5 September 2020) was a Bangladeshi

Chowdhury joined the 2nd Battalion the East Bengal Regiment of the Pakistan Army in 1958. He was promoted to the Major rank in April 1968.^[1]

Role in Bangladesh liberation war

In 1971, Chowdhury was posted in

In the first sector commander's conference in July, Chowdhury was appointed the commander of the western sector, which comprised Kushtia, Jessore, areas of Faridpur, including Doulatpur-Satkhira Road encompassed within Khulna.

It was past noon of 26 March when Chowdhury reached his Wing headquarters at Chuadanga. There, his NCOs briefed him of the overall situation including formal organisation of local resistance in the wake of the crackdown at Dhaka. In the meantime local Awami League leader Dr Ashab Ul Haq, who had earlier declared war against the occupational Pakistan armed forces the same morning at a public meeting, had contacted him over telephone and invited him to an emergency meeting with the public leaders and representatives of the local administration. At the meeting Chowdhury was asked to take charge of the armed resistance force that he accepted at once. After a long discussion the first ever war command of Bangladesh, named South Western Command, was formed on 26 March 1971 in Chuadanga. While Chowdhury was given the position of the Commander, Dr Ashab Ul Haq, MPA became the Chief Advisor and Barrister Abu Ahmed Afzalur Rashid alias Badal Rashid, MNA, and Advocate Yunus Ali, MPA, were made Deputy Chief Advisors. The whole of western region of the Padma was taken under the command comprising that of Kushtia, Faridpur, Jessore, Khulna districts. All the armed personnel from defence, EPR, Police, Ansar, Mujahid and armed student wing of the area were vested under the Command. The newly built District Council Dak Bungalow was made the Command Headquarters. The next day on 27 March at about noon the Pakistani flag, last flying one at the EPR Wing headquarters was ceremoniously lowered and the tri-colour Bangladesh flag was hoisted at the flag post by Chowdhury. Captain A R Azam Chowdhury, his deputy, was there who afterwards played valiant role under the Command. Chowdhury held the position until division of Bangladesh war commands into 11 Sectors by the Provisional Government on 11 July 1971. The South Western Command was then renamed Sector-8 with some revision of the command area and Chowdhury continued to hold the position of the Sector Commander until Major M Abul Manjur took over in September 1971.

Post war

On 7 November 1975, during the