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Boxer boxed in real life

Mirza Shakil, Tangaii
Freedom fighter Abul Hossen was a tough nut to crack in a boxing ring. But the winner of four gold medals including a weighty one in the 1993 Bangladesh Games now lives in penury after being knocked down in real life struggle.
He is now 60 and running a little tea stall at Kashii Bazar in Basail upazila of Tangaii. Enjoy a cup of tea at his stall and have a close look at him, you will still find those strong muscular hands and a blunt face of a typical boxer who won three light flyweight (105 pounds) category gold in the inter-divisional tournaments of Bangladesh Army in 1977, 1978 and 1979.
His biggest pride as a boxer came at the fag end of his service days in Bangladesh Army when he won the gold medal in the pinweight (42kg) category at the Bangladesh Games in 1993. It was also the year when he retired from the Army.
Hossen joined the Liberation War in 1971 and fought under the Company-2 commander Mosaddek Ali of Kaderia Bahini at the age of 21. During the Liberation War he fought bravely against the Pakistani military at Hat Balla. Natiapara and Sadar area under Basail upazila in the district.
After the independence, he joined
Bangladesh Army in 1972 as a sepoy with a salary of Tk 140 per month and retired as a havilder.
But since his retirement Hossen found it hard to survive in a battle of completely different kind. During a visit to his home at Kashii recently, this correspondent found that his family of eight had been living in a tiny makeshift room in a small tin shed.
All his medals have lost shine due to lack of care.
He told The Daily Star correspondent that after his retirement he tried to do different businesses but could not succeed. Later, he set up his small tea stall in the passenger shed at the Kashii Bus Stand in a desperate effort to support his family. But the money he earns from the tea stall in the sidelines of a monthly pension of Tk 2,600 he gets from Army is just not enough to barely survive.
Being a freedom fighter, Hossen did not get the FF allowance till 2007. He however started to get thatTk 900 allowance only after the issue was raised in the newspapers.
"Since then 1 have been maintaining my big family a bit better but it is still tough to survive with prices of everything very high," Abul said.
Another freedom fighter Sirajul Islam of
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the same village told The Daily Star that Hossen should get more support from the government for his contribution to the nation.
'This is a pity that a talented boxer like Abul Hossen has to run a tea stall to maintain his family. He should have been at least a boxing trainer," headded.