Justice Syed Asif Shahkar
At long last his dream has come true. He has been granted full Bangladesh citizenship. So,his desire to be buried after his death, in the sacred land for which he had always fought,will be possible to materialise.By birth he belonged to the opposite side though.
We are talking about Justice Syed Asif Shahkar who lives in Sweden. Having born in Harappa of Pakistani Punjab in 1948 he had a chequered life and ended up with his career as a Justice in the Swedish High Court.
Asif Shahkar is a born fighter. He is a great orator,a columnist,a human rights activist and a free thinker. He had always stood for justice even when circumstances had been extremely dangerous and could make him pay very dearly.
In 1971 Bangalees were fighting their great War of Liberation to free themselves from the clutches of Pakistani neo colonialism when the Pakistani army thrust on them the horrendous Genocide in Bangladesh on 25 March by enacting infamous Operation Searchlight. Syed Asif Shahkar was then a student in Lahore and the General Secretary of Punjab Students Union. Being a just and militant youth Asif was amongst the very few Pakistanis who braved all odds and raised his voice against the Genocide in Bangladesh that was being perpetrated by the Pakistani military junta and their Bihari and Bengali collaborators. He organised rallies and wrote poems and articles protesting against the brutality. He demanded immediate closure of the criminal genocidal activities. He was warned,tortured and finally put behind the bars by the junta. He was painted as a traitor to the nation by the authorities. He had to face hatred of people,society and even his relatives. His image was that of an enemy of Pakistan. He had to remain in jail till Bangladesh became independent on 16 December, 1971. Later,he continued with his studies in Lahore earning a MA from Punjab University. His next step was to get trained in TV and Film production from PTV’s training institute which got him a job as a producer in TV. But Pakistanis who have always denied their atrocities in 1971 and termed their defeat in Bangladesh War of Liberation as ‘fall of Dhaka’ had never again accepted this truthful human right activist as one of their own. He remained a ‘traitor’ to them. Asif could not bear that situation anymore. He remained a sympathetic to the new nation Bangladesh created with the greatest sacrifice of it’s people. He was and still remains a fan of the charismatic leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
In 1977 he left his motherland and shifted to Sweden where he got a political asylum. There too he began with some studies in Film production and later in Marketing. After pursuing different carrear(Teacher,Journalist,IT,TV producer) he finally became a judge and continued to become a Justice in the Swedish High Court.
All these years he remained a true world citizen and a stern fighter for human rights. 41 years after he fought for his Bangladeshi brethren in the very soil of Pakistan,he had a surprise in the offing.In 2012 he recieved the laurel of Citation of Bangladesh Liberation War as a Friend of Bangladesh. He was flown in from Stockholm to recieve the Honour from the hands of Bangladesh President Zillur Rahaman and Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Justice Shahkar places HPM Sheikh Hasina very high as a world leader and expects a leader like her comes to power to save Asif’s motherland Pakistan from crisis and bankruptcy. On that maiden trip to his beloved country Bangladesh he developed an extraordinary fascination for the land and it’s people and decided that it is here he wants to spend his last days of life and stay buried with the victorious and hilarious martyrs of Bangladesh Liberation war. In 2016 he sent an application addressed to HPM Sheikh Hasina expressing his desire but the letter presumably could not cross the hurdle of red tape. He never heard back.
Things took s positive turn six years later. A stern supporter of Bangladesh as he is,Asif went to Geneva as a speaker in a side event of UNHRC demanding International recognition of 1971 Bangladesh Genocide. It was organised by Bangladeshi Diaspora organisation BASUG from Den Haag on 3 December, 2022. During his interactions with Bikash Chowdhury Barua,the Chairman of BASUG,Justice Shahkar again expressed his strong desire to be buried in Bangladesh. Mr Bikash put Asif in touch with Ms Mahfuza Jasmine,a senior journalist in BSS and an active team member of Aamra Ekattor that is actively pursuing the Recognition of Bangladesh Genocide case in close touch with BASUG.Mahfuza became the pivotal contact in the matter. She arranged to publish the story of this uncommon but judicious desire of Asif through BSS.Aamra Ekattor higher leadership also was involved to pursue the case with Bangladesh government. Aamra Ekattor took up the issue with HPM office and MoFA,Bangladesh. The ball started rolling. Lt Col(retd) Sajjad Zahir who is a researcher and activist on Bangladesh War of Liberation happened to know Justice Shahkar since 2012 when the Justice came to Dhaka to recieve his Friend of Liberation War citation.Asif Shahkar thought of using that link too,as the Liberation War Hero Lt Col(retd) Sajjad Zahir BP possesses very good rapport with various government agencies. On the Justice’s approach and knowing about his hard toil and sacrifice towards the glorious Liberation War of Bangladesh Col Zahir took up the matter seriously. In the meantime,the matter was referred to the Bangladesh Embassy in Sweden by the MoFA. The processing got going. The ministries of Liberation War Affairs,Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs worked in liaison with the Prime Minister’s office and having a quick positive nod from our Honourable Prime Minister the file moved reasonably fast and here we see the results.
Justice Syed Asif Shahkar has expressed his highest satisfaction on getting the intimation of fulfilment of his desire.He has paid rich tributes to Bangabandhu and our Prime Minister for the exemplary leadership qualities with which they have taken Bangladesh forward. He has expressed his gratitude to everyone,who were involved in the process of getting his application approved.He pledged to uphold the honour bestowed upon him.
