Syed Asif Shahkar, a Swedish judge of Pakistani descent and recipient of the Muktijoddha Maitri Award, obtained citizenship in Bangladesh because he desired to be buried there.
A letter from the Ministry of Home Affairs, issued by Additional Secretary Md. Saiful Islam, stated that Asif Shahkar received his citizenship certificate today.
Shahkar had earlier written to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to request citizenship in Bangladesh and to state that he wanted to be buried there.
He was granted citizenship in accordance with article four of the Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary Provisions) Order, 1972 (P.O. No. 149 of 1972) and under the said order.
While talking to BSS, he said: “Today I have been reborn as a citizen of Bangladesh. Today I have been reborn as a citizen of the country and its people that I have loved since 1971.”
“I am very happy today because I can breathe my last among the martyred and valiant freedom fighters of Bangladesh,” he added.
Expressing his firm determination to follow the footsteps of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, he saluted the greatest Bangalee of the nation as well as the great leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Asif Shahkar was born in Panjab and in 1971 he was 22 years old.
Young Shahkar encountered hostility from his family, society, and the Pakistani people as a result of his protests, rallies, poetry, and leaflet distribution in favor of the Bangladesh Liberation War.
He served as the general secretary of the Punjab Students’ Union, and during the dark night of March 25, 1971, a segment of the West Pakistani populace opposed the Pakistani regime’s relentless and brutal slaughter on what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The operation was known as “Operation Search Light.”
He was detained as a “traitor” at the time, and in Pakistani prison, he suffered physical and psychological abuse for the nine months of the Liberation War.
However, the youthful Shahkar did not oppose Bangladesh. After Bangladesh’s triumph on December 16, 1971, he was freed from captivity.
Later, he spent some time working as a producer for Pakistan Television in Lahore, but his notoriety as a “black sheep” in his own nation prevented him from remaining in Pakistan for too long.
He fled to Sweden in 1977 in search of political asylum. He began his new battle to survive. Later on, he was named a judge of Sweden’s High Court Division.
Justice Shahkar visited Bangladesh in 2012, upon the invitation of the Bangladeshi government, to accept the Liberation War Friendship Award, following 41 years of independence.
On December 15, 2012, the late President Md. Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave him the honor.
