Birangana Rajkumari Rabidas Fulmoti passes away

Rajkumari Rabidas Fulmoti, a recognised Birangana of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War, died at her home in Sadullapur, Gaibandha, on Thursday evening (October 1). She was 84.

Fulmoti had been bedridden for nearly two years after suffering a stroke that left the right side of her body paralysed. She had also been suffering from various age-related complications, her family said.

Her son Moniraj Kumar said she died in her room at around Thursday evening after a prolonged illness. She is scheduled to be accorded state honours by the administration on Friday afternoon.

According to the Liberation War publication “Hridoye Ekattor,” Fulmoti was born in Manoharpur village of Jamalpur Union under Sadullapur. She was the daughter of Arjun Rabidas and Fu Rani Rabidas and had four sons and a daughter.

Family members said Pakistani forces and their local collaborators took Fulmoti from her home and subjected her to brutal torture during the 1971 war.

Despite the ordeal, she waited decades for official recognition. After years of applications and efforts, she was recognised by the state as a Birangana in March 2016, nearly 45 years after the Liberation War.

Fulmoti spent much of her life in poverty and raised her children alone after her husband, Kushiram Sarker Fashiar, died in 1988.

Former Sadullapur freedom fighters’ commander Abdur Rashid Azmi said Fulmoti’s suffering and sacrifice were a painful part of the Liberation War’s history. He said she lived with dignity and never sought financial assistance despite her prolonged illness.

Her death has drawn grief from local residents, who have called for her wartime experience to be preserved for future generations and for a memorial plaque or monument to be erected at her burial site.