30 years after independence, Bangladesh was the first country to be directly attacked by an external enemy

Major General Fazlur Rahman (Retd)
On April 18, 2001, 30 years after independence, Bangladesh was the first country to be directly attacked by an external enemy and achieved complete victory despite being outnumbered and outgunned. But we, as a nation so self-forgetful, did not even consider it necessary to remember this day.
The incident began in April 2001 when the then BDR Chief, Major General (Retd) A.L.M. Fazlur Rahman, learned that the Indian BSF was connecting Bangladeshi territory to Padua by building a road over No Man’s Land and had set up a temporary BSF camp in Padua.
Despite repeated protests from the BDR, the Indian side did not provide any cooperation and did not even agree to a flag meeting.
In view of this behavior on the sovereign territory of Bangladesh, on the night of April 15-16, on the orders of Major General Fazlur Rahman, a force of about four hundred moved to Padua and surrounded the Indian BSF camp in Padua.
There were about 70 BSF soldiers there, and after firing only six, the BSF soldiers surrendered there. The BDR took full control of Padua. Negotiations began with India on the 16th.
It was said that neither side would refrain from military action during the negotiations.
While these negotiations were going on in Dahuk, India betrayed Bangladesh and before dawn on April 18, about 200 kilometers northwest of there, a force of about 500 Indian Army and BSF forces invaded Bangladesh to occupy the BDR camp and the Baraibari area of ​​Roumari Upazila of Kurigram district.
This was the first time in 30 years that our country was attacked by an external enemy. At that time, there were only 11 BDR members there.
Lance Naik Md. Ohiduzzaman of BDR was martyred in the sudden firing of Indian soldiers. Instead of fear, the remaining 10 BDR soldiers burned like fire.
With only two sub-machine guns and other common weapons, they attacked the large Indian force from both sides. In the first counterattack, 17/18 bodies of the Indian force were lost.
The Indian invading force was stopped there. In the meantime, on the orders of Major General Fazlur Rahman, about four hundred forces from Mymensingh and Netrokona moved there and reached there around ten o’clock. A fierce battle started with the Indian force on the open ground.
The Indian force had already stopped, they started fleeing, disoriented by the full counterattack of the BDR.
They left 18 bodies on the border of Bangladesh and took about 174 more bodies with them. Some more Indian soldiers were caught while abandoning their weapons, losing their minds and fleeing. Three people were martyred on the Bangladesh side. The Indian army accepted complete defeat and fled to India.
None of us may have remembered our heroes who stood for the country in the name of Allah with their chests clenched in front of a five-times larger enemy force and snatched the first victory of independent Bangladesh.
But history will one day evaluate these heroes correctly: Naib Subedar Abdullah, Havildar Nazrul Islam, Lance Naik Fazlul Haque, Lance Naik Wahiduzzaman, Sepoy Moazzem Hossain, Idris Ali, Abdul Hamid, Liton Mia, Badruzzaman, FS Naik Jalaluddin Mia and Sepoy Ishaq and their worthy leader Major General Fazlur Rahman.