Sikder, Siraj (1944-1975)  revolutionary politician. Siraj Sikder was born on 27 September 1944 at Bhedarganj in Shariatpur district. He passed the matriculation examination from Barisal Zila School in 1959, I.Sc from Barisal Braja Mohan College in 1961, and obtained Engineering degree from the Dhaka Engineering University in 1967. He associated himself with student politics as an activist of East Pakistan Student Union. He was elected vice president of the central committee of Student Union (Menon group) in 1967. He took a job in the C & B Department of the government in 1967, but within three months left the job to join a private company named Engineering Limited in Teknaf. In late 1968, Siraj Sikder resigned from the service of the company, and established the Mao Tse Tung Research Centre in Dhaka. But soon the research centre was closed down by the Pakistan government. In February 1970, Siraj Sikder joined the Technical Training College in Dhaka as a Lecturer.

During the war of liberation in 1971, Siraj Sikder made a plan to establish 'Sarbahara' (have-nots) cells in the rural areas of East Bengal. He formed a cadre force styled as Purba Banglar Sashastra Dheshapremik Bahini (The Armed Patriotic Force of East Bengal) on 30 April 1971 at Swarupkathi in Barisal district. On 3 June 1971, he floated a political party named Purba Bangla Sarbahara Party as a political platform of the deprived classes.

During the War of Liberation the armed cadres of his party launched many attacks on the Pakistan army positions. After the emergence of Bangladesh, the first congress of the Sarbahara Party was held on 14 January 1972, and Siraj Sikder was elected president of the party. In April 1973, Purba Banglar Jatiya Mukti Front (National Liberation Front of East Bengal) was formed consisting of eleven people's organisations with Siraj Sikder as president. Thereafter he launched armed struggle against the government in different parts of the country with an object of establishing the supremacy and rule of the have-nots (sarbahara). With the promulgation of emergency in the country in 1974 Siraj Sikder went underground. In 1975, he was arrested at Hali Shahr in Chittagong by the intelligence force of the government, and was escorted to Dhaka by air. He was killed on 2 January 1975 by police firing on his way from Dhaka airport to the raksi bahini camp at Savar. [Muazzam Hussain Khan]