Sharif Imam

Shariful Alam Imam Ahmed (October 30, 1925—December 13, 1971) was a participator in Bangladesh War of Independence. He is most widely remembered as the husband of "Shaheed Janani" (Mother of Martyrs), Jahanara Imam, and as the father of guerrilla fighter Shafi Imam Rumi. He is a character in Jahanara Imam's famous memoir Ekattorer Dingulee (, ).

Biography

Sharif Imam was a Civil engineer. In 1948, he married Jahanara Imam, whom he met in Rangpur while studying at Carmichael College. They settled in Dhaka.

Role in War of Independence In 1971, following the Pakistan army crackdown on pro-independence militants and supporters on 25 March, the Bangladesh War broke out. Many joined the independence war, including Imam's elder son Shafi Imam Rumi, who joined the Mukti Bahini during the war, Imam's wife Jahanara Imam wrote a diary on her feelings about the struggle. This later became one of the most important publications about the War of Independence.

Sharif and his friend Sajedur Rahman collected and sent money to the pro-independence fighters. At the end of June 1971, Shahadat Chowdhury and Habibul Alam came to Sharif's house with a letter from Sector-2 commander Major Khaled Mosharraf. Mosharraf asked Sharif information about bridges and culverts of Bangladesh in order to hamper Pakistani army's movement. Patriot Sharif used to provide detail information of the exact points where to set explosives so that the bridge will be damaged but also there will be less damage so that it can be repaired easily after the country is liberated.

Sharif underwent a massive heart-attack on 13 December 1971, was rushed to IPGMR (popularly known as PG hospital, later renamed to BSMMU), where he died at late night because the defibrillator couldn't be used due to a blackout being carried out as an official Bangladesh War of Independence began.