Bir sreshtho Mohammad Ruhul Amin

Bir sreshtho Mohammad Ruhul Amin

Ruhul Amin (Bengali: রুহুল আমিন), better known as Shaheed Mohammad Ruhul Amin, was an engine room artificer in the Bangladesh Navy who was posthumously awarded the nation's highest bravery award for his service during the Liberation War. The Bangladesh Navy warship BNS Shaheed Ruhul Amin is named after him.

Early life

Bir Shrestho Ruhul Amin was born in 1934 at Bagpanchra village under sonaimuri upazilla of Noakhali district. His father was Mohammad Azhar Patwari and mother was Zulekha Khatun. He was the eldest son of the family. Ruhul Amin finished his primary education from local schools and passed his matriculation from Sunaimuri High School in 1949. Soon afterwards, he joined the Pakistan Navy and went to Karachi for training. He took his training at the Pakistani Naval Base at Manora Island and later finished his professional training from the PNS Karsaz at Karachi.

Involvement at the Liberation War

Ruhul Amin's tomb

At the start of Bangladesh Liberation War, Amin immediately resigned from Pakistan Navy and left “PNS Comilla” at Chittagong and came back to his village. He organized local youths and soldiers for the war. At May, he along with 500 others joined at Sector-3 under Major K M Shafiullah. Later he enrolled at “Palash”, a warship of Bangladesh Navy and at the same time worked as the Squadron leader for both “Padma” and “Palash”.
On 10 December an accident occurred at the Rupsha river in Khulna. Two of the warships of the Mukti Bahini named "Padma" and "Palash" mistakenly came under fire from the Indian Air Force as it crossed the river Rupsha near the Khulna shipyards. on this day. Earlier that day, Indian Air Force fired at different places of Khunla city. Incidentally one of those bombs had fallen at the warship "Palash". Ruhul Amin was working as an artificer of that ship. After the heavy bombing, the engine room got burned and Ruhul Amin was forced to dive into the water. When he reached the river shore, he got caught by the Razakars who killed him using their bayonets.