Dhaka: Bangladesh's former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General (Retd.) M Harun-ur-Rashid was found dead at the Chittagong Club premises on Monday. A decorated soldier, a 1971 war hero and a harsh critic of Pakistan, he was 77.  

According to the Officer-in-Charge of Kotwali Police Station, Abdul Karim, the body has been sent to Chattogram Medical College Hospital for an autopsy and the cause of death will be confirmed after receiving the postmortem report, local media in Bangladesh reported.

Commissioned in the Pakistani Army as a young Lieutenant in September 1970, Harun-ur-Rashid served in the Bangladesh army till 2002. After his retirement, he was quite vocal against the atrocities committed by the war criminals and accused Pakistan for threatening the national security of Bangladesh.

According to police, Harun-ur-Rashid had travelled to Chattogram from Dhaka on Sunday to be present in a local court for an ongoing case. He checked into a residential room at the Chittagong Club and went to sleep after dinner.

The club authorities alerted the police after he did not respond to repeated knocks at his door on Monday morning.

After the 1971 Liberation War, Rashid was awarded the Bir Bikrom, the third highest gallantry award of the country. He served as the Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh army from December 2000 to June 2002.

"As a young Lieutenant, he was seeing how the Pakistani government was totally against transferring power to the Awami League in Bangladesh even after winning the 1970 elections, and by the initial days of March, 1971, he realized that the Pakistani army was planning something nasty for the Bengali people," reckoned a Bangladesh defence expert.

"In the month of October, 1971, Lieutenant Harunur led his company alongside the newly formed 9th East Bengal Regiment in the fight against the Pakistani army in the bloodbath of the battle of Kasba... Kasba was captured by the 9th EBR and then, Lieutenant Harunur went to fight in the hills of Latumura," he added.

(IANS)