Colonel Shaik Nizamuddin

   COLONEL NIZAMUDDIN SHAIK

Date of Birth: (1900/1906)

‘Had Netaji been alive today, India would not have been divided… I am not able to find what I have lost and what I have achieved’ laments Colonel Shaik Nizamuddin, who was born in 1900/1906 in Dhakwa village near Mubarkpur area of Azamghad district, Uttar Pradesh.  His original name was Saifudin Shaik, but he registered himself in Indian National Army as Nizamuddin Shaik.  He had been to Singapore in 1926 as his father Imam Ali was running a canteen in Singapore.  When Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose revived Indian National Army in 1943 and gave ‘Chalo Delhi’ call, Nizamuddin joined Indian National Army (INA).  Having noticed his commitment and efficiency, Netaji appointed him as his driver and later his body guard and personal assistant.  When Indian National Army (INA) had retreated after the defeat of Japan in the Second World War on 16^th August, 1945, Nizamuddin accompanied Netaji upto Singapore.  Nizamuddin does not believe that Netaji died in plane crash on 19^th August, 1945.  He questions the plane crash theory saying that ‘he had left Netaji on the banks of Sitangpur River near Burma – Thailand frontier four months after the said Plane crash’.  Nizamuddin spent his life in Bruma till 1950 and he married Habibunnisa, a girl from of an Indian Family.  He returned to India in 1969 to lead normal life in his native village Dhakwa.  In 2001, he revealed his role in the Indian National Army and requested the Government to recognise him as a freedom fighter.  Government of India responded favourably twelve years after his request.  In 2013, he was honoured as freedom fighter by Azamghar district magistrate Sri Pragjal Yadav in a grand felicitation function organised the Government in Dhakwa.  In that function, Poorvanchal University Vice Chancellor Sunder Lal conferred honorary degree on Colonel Nizamuddin.  Azamghar district magistrate declared his as a ‘freedom fighter and said that related all facilities would be provided to Nizamuddin after due official procedure.  It is only after this programme that Colonel Shaik Nizamuddin’s role in Indian National Army came to light.