Mohammad Ruhul Amin BS (; June 5, 1935 – 10 December 1971) was an

engine room artificer Engine room artificer (ERA) is a specialised position in the crews of naval vessels – especially those of the British Royal Navy (RN) and other Commonwealth navies. An ERA is usually a fitter and turner, boilermaker, coppersmith or enginesmi ...

in the

Bangladesh Navy The Bangladesh Navy () is the naval warfare branch of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, responsible for the defence of Bangladesh's of maritime territorial area from any external threat, the security of sea ports and exclusive economic zones of Ban ...

who was posthumously awarded the Bangladesh's highest bravery award

Bir Sreshtho The Bir Sreshtho (; ), is the highest military award of Bangladesh. It was awarded to seven freedom fighters who showed utmost bravery and died in action for their nation. They are considered martyrs. The other three gallantry awards are named, ...

, for his service and bravery during the

Liberation War Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

. He was killed on 10 December 1971 while on board BNS ''Palash'', which was sunk in accidental bombing by

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

Early life

Bir Shrestho Ruhul Amin was born in 1935 at Bagpanchra village under what is now

Sonaimuri Upazila Sonaimuri (সোনাইমুড়ী) is a newly established upazila or sub-district in Noakhali District, Bangladesh. It consists of ten union councils or parishads - Ambarnagar, Amisha Para, Bazra, Deoti, Jayag, Nadana, Nateshwar, Sonaimu ...

Noakhali district Noakhali District (), historically known as Bhulua (), is a Districts of Bangladesh, district in southeastern Bangladesh, located in Chattogram Division. It was established as a district in 1821, and officially named Noakhali in 1868. The distr ...

. His father was Mohammad Azhar Patwari and mother was Zulekha Khatun.

Involvement in the Liberation War

At the start of Bangladesh Liberation War with

Operation Searchlight Operation Searchlight was a military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army in an effort to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in former East Pakistan in March 1971. Pakistan retrospectively justified the operation on the basis of ant ...

, Amin immediately resigned from the Pakistan Navy, left PNS ''Comilla'' at Chittagong, and returned to his village. He organized local youths and soldiers for the war. In May, he along with 500 others joined at Sector-3 under Major

K M Shafiullah Kazi Mohammed Safiullah, BU, psc (; 2 September 1934 – 26 January 2025) was a retired two star army officer and diplomat. He served as the 2nd Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army, and a Jatiya Sangsad member for Awami League. He ga ...

. Later he enrolled at ''Palash'', a warship of Bangladesh Navy and at the same time worked as the squadron leader for both warships ''Padma'' and ''Palash''. On 10 December 1971, during the concluding days of the Bangladesh Liberation War, an incident occurred at the Rupsha river in Khulna. In a successful campaign of the allied Bangladesh and Indian naval forces, after freeing Jessore, the ships were advancing towards capturing the Titumir naval base from the Pakistan Navy. Two of the warships of the Bangladesh Navy/Mukti Bahini named ''Padma'' and ''Palash'' mistakenly came under fire from the Indian Air Force as it crossed the river Rupsha near the Khulna shipyard. According to some other witnesses, Indian Air Force fired at different places of Khunla city earlier that day and incidentally one of those bombs had fallen at the warship ''Palash''. Ruhul Amin was working as an artificer of that ship. Both ships caught fire. As a result of heavy bombing, the engine room in the warship caught fire and in a bid to save the ship, Ruhul Amin tried to extinguish it, ignoring orders to abandon the ship. But the engine room was under fire again and another shell exploded which injured Ruhul Amin which convinced him to abandon the ship. He jumped into the water and swam ashore but was attacked and killed with bayonets by the awaiting Razakars.

Legacy

Ro Ro Ferry ''Bir Shreshtha Ruhul Amin'' was named after him. The Bangladesh Navy warship BNS ''Shaheed Ruhul Amin'' is named after him. Bir Shrestha Ruhul Amin Sarani is a road in

Saidpur Cantonment Saidpur Cantonment is a cantonment of the Bangladesh Armylocated in Saidpur, Nilphamari District, Bangladesh. It functions under the area command of Rangpur Area. Installation * EME Centre and School (EMEC&S) Commands under 66th Infantry Div ...

, Saidpur,

Nilphamari Nilphamari District () is a district in Northern Bangladesh. It is a part of Rangpur Division. It is about 400 kilometers to the northwest of the capital Dhaka. It has an area of . Nilphamari is bounded by Rangpur and Lalmonirhat in east, Ran ...

which is named after him. Bir Shrestha Shahid Ruhul Amin Stadium in Chittagong is named after him. He had three daughters and two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amin, Mohammed Ruhul 1934 births 1971 deaths Bangladesh Navy personnel People killed in the Bangladesh Liberation War Pakistani defectors Recipients of the Bir Sreshtho Mukti Bahini personnel People from Sonaimuri Upazila History of Bangladesh Bangladesh Liberation War Martyr of Bangladesh