Shahid Saber was the pen name of the writer and journalist AKM Shahidullah. He was killed by

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

when they burned down ''The Daily Sangbad'' office on 31 March 1971.

Early life

Saber was born in Eidgah,

Cox's Bazar District Cox's Bazar ( bn, কক্সবাজার জেলা , ''Cox's Bazar Jela'' also ''Cox's Bazar Zila'') is a district in the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh. It is named after Cox's Bazar town. It is located south of Chittagong. Cox's ...

Chittagong Division Chittagong Division, officially known as Chattogram Division, is geographically the largest of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It covers the south-easternmost areas of the country, with a total area of and a population at the 2 ...

on 18 December 1930. He studied in Eidgah Primary School after which he joined

Hare School Hare School is one of the oldest schools in Kolkata, India, teaching grades one to twelve under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. It is a state government-administered boys sc ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

in the fourth grade. He joined Chittagong Collegiate School after the partition of India and graduated from that college in 1949. He got admitted to Chittagong College after that. As a student he was involved with various cultural organizations including Chhotader Asar and Mukul Fouj Movement. In 1950 he was arrested as part of a government crackdown on communists and passed his I.A. exam from Rajshahi Central Jail in 1951. He was released in 1954. He graduated from Jagannath College in 1955 with a B.A.

Career

Saber worked at

Dhaka West End High School West End High School is a secondary school situated in Azimpur, Dhaka. It was established in 1920 by the time Dhaka University was established. It was the most western side school of Dhaka city back 1920. According to the location, this institut ...

as an assistant teacher. He left the high school to join ''The Daily Sangbad'' as an assistant editor. He successfully completed the Federal Information Service examination but was denied a position because of his time spent in jail. In 1958 he experienced a mental breakdown and never fully recovered. He wrote a number of books including a

prison memoir A memoir is an autobiographical writing normally dealing with a particular subject from the author's life. The following is a list of writers who have described their experiences of being political prisoners. Those included in the list are indivi ...

Death

Saber used to live in the office of ''The Daily Sangbad''. On 31 March 1971 the

burned down the Newspaper office killing him.

References

{{reflist 1930 births 1971 deaths Martyred intellectuals of the Bangladesh Liberation War Academic staff of the University of Dhaka People from Cox's Bazar District