139 BD peacekeepers died, 237 injured for cause of peace in over 3 decades

At least 139 Bangladeshi peacekeepers of armed forces lost their lives while 237 were injured in the line of duty in different UN missions to bring peace to various war-ravaged parts of the world for more than three decades.

Bangladeshi peacekeepers have never retreated in the face of danger when confronted with 'unknown enemies on foreign soil'. Peacekeepers working under complex and dangerous circumstances often endangered their lives.

At least 126 Bangladesh Army personnel lost their lives and 225 injured, 4 Bangladesh Navy personnel  lost their lives and 6 others injured and  9 Air Force personnel were killed and 6 other injured in the line of duty in different UN missions to bring peace to various war-ravaged parts of the world for more than  three decades.

So far, 188,558 Bangladeshi peacekeepers have participated in UN peacekeeping missions. Currently, there are 7,436 Bangladeshi peacekeepers deployed in nine different missions.

It currently deploys more than 7,436 military and police personnel to the UN peacekeeping operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Mali, South Sudan, the Western Sahara.

Bangladesh Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Muhammad Muhith on Thursday received 'Dag Hammarskjold Medal' from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and signed condolence book for the six fallen peacekeepers of Bangladesh.

The UN Secretary-General conveyed deepest condolences to the families of 103 fallen peacekeepers from 39 countries who made supreme sacrifice in 2022.

UN Secretary-General Ant�nio Guterres handed over the medal at the UN Headquarters, marking the 75th anniversary of UN Peacekeeping and the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on  May 25.

The Bangladeshi peacekeepers are Md Sharif Hossain, Md Jahangir Alam, and Md Jasim who served with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), Kafil Majumder who served with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Md Manjur Rahman who served with the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and Police Constable Md Moniruzzaman who served with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

Bangladesh is the largest contributor of uniformed personnel to the UN Peacekeeping.