A traffic police sergeant died yesterday after he was hit by a truck on Barishal-Patuakhali highway near Barishal University in Barishal Sadar upazila on July 16, 2019.

The deceased is Golam Kibria, 32, from Subidkhali in Mirzaganj upazila of Patuakhali. He was serving as a traffic sergeant of Barishal Metropolitan Police (BMP) and was on duty near the university.

Habibur Rahman Khan, deputy commissioner (headquarters) of BMP, said around 12:15pm, Kibria signalled a speeding truck to stop, but it tried to flee the scene by ignoring the signal. Then the sergeant chased the truck on his motorbike to stop it.

Under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh achieved its independence in 1971. In the dark of March 25, 1971, the Pakistani occupation force slaughtered thousands of innocent Bangalees, prompting the nation to create resistance against them. On this fateful night, the Pakistani military rulers launched the “Operation Search Light” which first hit Rajarbagh police lines where police personnel were in the forefront with their service arms.The invading force had evidently understood that police would be the main obstacle while conducting operation search light and therefore, they attacked the police lines first. According to a statistics, a total of 33,995 police personnel were in service in the then East Pakistan during the Liberation War. Of them, 13,000 denied loyalty to the then government and joined the freedom fight.However, it has been speculated that the figure of police freedom fighters was much higher as around 70 percent of police personnel in some districts joined the war. A government order issued during the period also supported the speculation, saying “The Govt. of East Pakistan, Dacca has been pleased to convey sanction to the creation of the following temporary posts in the East Pakistan police force and deputation thereto, of the officers and men from West Pakistan for a period of 6 months with effect from 1-6-71.” As time passed, each police station turned into a fort of freedom fighters, hoisting Bangladeshi flag in police lines. After directly getting involved in the activities of Mujibnagar government in exile, the police force intensified the Liberation War. The contribution of police force to the independence was mainly divided into two phases — a) the period before March 24, 1971 and b) from March 25 to December 16, 1971.