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Rangpur Cantonment

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Bangladeshi military cantonment

Rangpur Cantonment
রংপুর সেনানিবাস
Rangpur City, Rangpur, Bangladesh
Rangpur Cantonment
TypeMilitary base
Site information
Controlled by Bangladesh Army
Garrison information
Current
commander		Major General Mohammad Kamrul Hasan

Rangpur Cantonment (Bengali: রংপুর সেনানিবাস) is a cantonment located in Rangpur, Bangladesh. It is the headquarters of 66th Infantry Division of the Bangladesh Army.

History

Seal of the Rangpur Cantonment Board

The mass of the city of Rangpur were protesting against the Pakistanis from a very beginning of the year 1971. Consequently, some revolutionaries including one teenager laid down their lives on the streets of Rangpur. This was even referred in famous 7 March Speech of Bangabandhu. But within mid-March, the Pakistanis themselves became cornered in the city as the youth of Rangpur had already started attacking them. In such an event, one youngman named "Shahed" attacked a lieutenant of Pakistan army, tackled him and 3 of his subordinate troops alone and bare handedly and then obtained their arms.

In the night of 25 March, when the Pakistani Army launched infamous Operation Searchlight, the Pakistani troops in Rangpur started disarmed Bengali guards at Rangpur Cantonment, then each Bengali patrol group was surrounded by waiting Pakistani soldiers on their return from regular patrolling and disarmed. Bengali officers and soldiers of 23rd Field and 29 cavalry were neutralised this way and most were executed. Pakistani troops moved into Rangpur on 25 March around 12:00 am and took up positions around the city. A Bengali officer captain Nawajesh had barely escaped from the EPR HQ with some men, but the Pakistanis neutralised the police and remaining EPR troops easily.

In 28 March, one significant event took place in Rangpur cantonment. The Bengali mass of Rangpur City along with a huge number of tribal Santali fighters launched a pre-emptive attack on the cantonment with local arms like spears and poisonous arrows. Showing extraordinary understanding of military strategies and valour, they flanked the Pakistani defences adjacent to the cantonment almost undetected and attacked them from a very unexpected and unprotected direction. They in the way of penetrating the Pakistani defence column suddenly came under heavy machine-gun fires and in it, many Bengalis and Santalis laid down their lives. Although failed initially, this attack downed the morale of the Pakistani troops and they in retaliation started taking revenge on the corpses of the martyrs by burning those with patrols, executing existing Bengali troops of Pakistan army inside the cantonment, and torturing other family members and civilians stranded in the nearby Rangpur Central Jail.

This cantonment was freed by freedom fighters of the Bangladesh Forces in the month of November, within just one month after the death of famous freedom fighter of Rangpur, Shahid Mukhtar Elahi.

Institutions

References

  1. "Cantonment Locations". Bangladesh Army. Archived from the original on 18 June 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  2. "Rangpur Cantonment Siege Day observed". Bangladesh Post. 27 March 2022.
  3. "Pakistani army massacred 10 intellectuals on April 4, 1971 in Rangpur". Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha. 3 April 2023.
  4. ^ "Liberation war began decisively on March 28 in Rangpur". Dhaka Tribune. 13 March 2021.
  5. "On this days in 71,600 people were killed at Nishbetganj". The Daily Star. 28 March 2013.
  6. "Pakistani army massacred 10 intellectuals on April 4, 1971 in Rangpur". Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha. 3 April 2023.
  7. "100% golden A+ in Rangpur Cadet College". Dhaka Tribune. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  8. Rangpur Army Medical College
  9. "RAMC Shopping Complex launched in Rangpur". Daily Sun.
  10. "Army launches tree plantation campaign in Rangpur area". The Daily Star. 14 July 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  11. "Moeen opens Rangpur Cantonment Golf Club". bdnews24.com. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
Cantonments of Bangladesh
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