Kushtia, Sept. 6: A committee of activists and thinkers in Bangladesh is commemorating freedom fighter Bagha Jatin's death centenary while highlighting how his and Surya Sen's example had inspired Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The idea is to link the Liberation War of 1971 with India's freedom struggle and strike a blow for secularism in Bangladesh, where zealots have murdered four secular bloggers, the organisers said.

An event was held in Jatindranath Mukhopadhyay's (1879-1915) birthplace of Koyagram in Kushtia last week, which several Bangladeshi ministers and the Indian high commissioner were poised to attend before running into bad weather.

Mukhopadhyay --- nicknamed Bagha Jatin after killing a tiger in close combat --- died at Balasore in Odisha on September 10, 1915, of wounds suffered in a gallant battle with the British forces.

On Thursday, exactly 100 years later, a team from Bangladesh will pay homage to him in Balasore.

Both the Kushtia and Balasore legs of the programme are being organised jointly by a Calcutta think tank, the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, and a panel formed last year by prominent Bangladeshi citizens, including writer and rights activist Shahriar Kabir.

Kabir is the leader of the Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee, which is fighting to bring to justice the Razakars --- Bangladeshis who had collaborated with the Pakistani army in 1971.

"We want the people of Bangladesh to know more about Bagha Jatin, who was an inspiration for Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman in his fight against the Pakistani army," Kabir said.

"He (Mujib) was also greatly influenced by the sacrifice of Surya Sen, who too was born in Bangladesh (Chittagong). The people of Bangladesh should know that the freedom struggle started by these revolutionaries ended in 1971 when we got freedom under the leadership of Bangabandhu."

Sen (1894-1934) led the famous Chittagong armoury raid of 1930.

That the government, led by Mujib's daughter Sheikh Hasina, is backing the effort is evident from the guest list for the Kushtia event, where Bagha Jatin's grandson Indujyoti Mukhopadhyay was felicitated.

The invitees included finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, information minister Hasanul Haq Inu and civil aviation minister Rashed Khan Menon as well as Indian envoy Pankaj Saran. But their choppers could not take off from Dhaka.

However, the entire civil and police administration of Kushtia -- including deputy commissioner Syed Belal Hossain - was present.

One reason for the Hasina government's interest should be that the programme's larger objectives include highlighting the sacrifices by Mujib's generation, which some feel have dimmed in public memory.

The Liberation War, which saw 30 lakh deaths and the rape of five lakh women, remains an emotive issue in Bangladesh, which has had a chequered experience with democracy since then. Mujib was assassinated in 1975 with most of his family members, and the country came under military rule for the next 16 years.

After democracy returned in 1991, Bangladesh witnessed a bitter power struggle till Sheikh Hasina won a resounding majority in 2008. She was re-elected in 2014 amid an Opposition boycott.

Hasina has been trying to revive the Liberation War's legacy "but has often faced a challenge as the Opposition combine of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami have always tried to deflect attention from our freedom struggle", historian Muntassir Mamoon said at the event in Kushtia.

"They have constantly opposed Bangabandhu's dream of a secular society in our country. By remembering people like Bagha Jatin, we can try to revive the secular tradition."

Bagha Jatin is not Kushtia's lone connection with pre-Independence Calcutta. Rabindranath Tagore spent a significant part of his life here at the family seat in Silaidaha, which Dhaka has turned into a museum. Lalon Fakir, the mystic, songwriter, saint and social reformer, is from this district too.

"We are fighting a constant battle with the fundamentalist forces. We will not let the divisive forces operate in this land of Bagha Jatin, Tagore and Lalon," said Sufi Faruq Ibne Abubaker, a local politician from the ruling Awami League.

Apart from the attacks on the secular bloggers, Bangladesh has in recent months witnessed allegations of atrocities on religious minorities and forcible acquisition of their properties.

The centenary committee's demands include renaming the main road and the Koya College after Bagha Jatin and establishing a cultural complex on land that apparently belonged to his family.

"We have been voicing this demand for a year but now I have told the students and local people to rename it as Bagha Jatin College and rename the main road in Koyagram in his memory," Mamoon said.

"I think they will do it in seven days. Last year, I had requested them to remove the photograph of a Razakar from the principal's office and they did it."

Given the mood in Koyagram, where over 2,000 people attended the event, renaming the college and the road and setting up the cultural complex do not look difficult.