Sergeant-Major Najmuddin

Sergeant-Major Najmuddin is the instructor and operational voice of CUTIA, a covert pursuit-and-capture unit whose recruits are trained to obey orders without question and arrest designated “undesirable elements.” In the novel, his clipped, barked commands turn political doctrine into routine procedure; his deployment of CUTIA to Dacca places that machinery within the military operation against Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman’s movement.

Training the unit

At a briefing in a hut with a blackboard, Najmuddin supplies both questions and answers in a rigid drill. The recruits are told that CUTIA units work in groups of three people and one dog, without officers present, and must therefore make their own decisions while maintaining Islamic self-discipline and responsibility. Yet the latitude to act independently exists inside a command structure that allows no interruptions and demands obedience.

Defining the enemy

Najmuddin’s lesson describes the targets as covert, hard-to-identify people and assigns them a broad range of alleged intentions: destroying family life, opposing religion, expropriating landowners, and abolishing film censorship. The training links these claims to anxiety about forthcoming elections and a return to civilian rule. Recruits are instructed to search without wavering, arrest without mercy, and work covertly, efficiently, and quickly. The Defense of Pakistan Rules are presented as authority to detain people incommunicado for renewable six-month periods, converting the unit’s suspicions into a formal mechanism of confinement.

Deployment to Dacca

On March 15, 1971, Najmuddin takes part in preparing CUTIA for deployment. After Brigadier Iskandar issues the order, he directs the recruits to remove their uniforms; the men are then issued civilian clothes, disguising the unit’s military identity. CUTIA is flown to Dacca by way of Ceylon alongside a much larger contingent of West Wing troops, also travelling in civilian dress.

The recruits are initially not told the destination or the operation’s purpose. On March 25, after Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto break off talks with Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman and return to the West Wing, Najmuddin and Iskandar arrive at the barracks with the unit’s uniforms and dog collars. Najmuddin orders the men to dress and arm themselves. Iskandar then reveals that the mission concerns Mujib, and CUTIA leaves its barracks as patriotic songs by Jamila Singer sound over the base loudspeakers.

Narrative significance

Najmuddin is characterized chiefly through command: he asks, answers, drills, and mobilizes. The call-and-response lesson makes political assumptions sound like settled facts, while its repeated imperatives suppress inquiry into who counts as an enemy or whether detention is justified. His role links the abstract vocabulary of state security to the practical steps of disguise, transport, and armed deployment, showing how a unit trained to treat obedience as its defining virtue can be put to work during a political crisis.