Anwar Pasha


Anwar Pasha was a Bangladeshi novelist. He was a martyred intellectual of 1971. Pasha was born on 15 April 1928 at Dabkai village in Murshidabad. His father was Haji Makrom Ali.

Life

Anwar Pasha was born in the village Dabkai in Murshidabad. He passed the High Madrassah examination in 1946 then went on to do his BA and then his MA in Bengali from Calcutta University in 1953. He started his career as teacher of Manikchak High Madrasah and later on taught at Bhabta Azizia High Madrasah in 1954 and Sadikhan Diar Bohumukhi Higher Secondary School in 1957. In 1958 he joined Pabna Edward College and in 1966 he joined Department of Bengali, Dhaka University.

Family

Pasha got married with Masina Begam in the year 1953. Masina was the daughter of Junab Hekmat Ali who was of Palitberia village of Nadia, West Bengal.Anwar and Masina had 2 children, Masarul Aftab, Robiul Aftab.

Literary career

Pasha's literary career started when he was a student at Calcutta University. At that time, he published "Hasnahena", an anthology of several literary essays. He later moved to writing short stories, novels, essays, and poems. With Muhammad Abdul Hai, he also edited and published four medieval Bengali epics.

Works

In 1971 a few days before 16 December, he was picked up from his university flat by Pakistan Army and its collaborators, and taken to Mirpur, where he along with other intellectuals was executed. His dead body was recovered later and buried in the compound of the Dhaka University Central mosque.
On 3 November 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal - a special Bangladeshi court set up by the government - sentenced Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and Ashrafuz Zaman Khan to death after the tribunal found them guilty in absentia of torture and murder of 18 intellectuals including Anwar Pasha during 1971 Liberation war of Bangladesh.

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