Mir Shokot have been died.

Lt-Gen. Mir Shawkat Ali, Bir Uttam, has died of heart attack at his Gulshan residence at around 6:30pm on Saturday. The gallant freedom fighter is survived by his wife and three daughters. All the daughters presently reside in United Kingdom.

74 years old at the time of death, Mir Shawkat Ali had been suffering from cancer and kidney ailments. Family members told the reporters that he fell suddenly from chair while talking to some guests. A doctor, called on later, told that heart failure had caused his death.

Mir Shawkat Ali was a Major during the liberation war in 1971. He fought the war as the commander of sector-5 and a close aide to Ziaur Rahman, the then commander of Z-force responsible for the offensives in eastern and south-eastern parts of Bangladesh. After the war Ali was awarded 'Bir Uttam', the highest gallantry award of Bangladesh a surviving freedom fighter could receive. Mir Shawkat Ali worked alongside Ziaur Rahman in the liberated Bangladesh too.

Upon his retirement from Bangladesh Army in 1981, government appointed him as the high commissioner to Australia. He also served as the high commissioner of Germany before joining the politics of BNP. In 1991 general election, Mir Shawkat Ali, already serving as the president of BNP's Dhaka metropolitan unit, got elected as an MP from the Lalbag constituency. He chaired the ministry of labour and later the ministry of food in 1991-96 cabinet of the BNP government. Later in 1996, he fought in general election from the Dhanmondi constituency and lost.

Over his lack of contentment with BNP high command, the long relationship between Mir Shawkat Ali and the party declined. Being a Vice-President of the party's executive committee, he sent his resignation to the chairperson which was never accepted. Subsequently Mir Shawkat Ali played vital role in the formation of 'Sector Commanders Forum', a platform advocating the trial of 1971 war criminals and collaborators which is told to have played a crucial role in the 2008 general election. Awami League, the major party vowing trial of the 1971 war criminals and collaborators, secured a landslide victory in the election.

Mir Shawkat Ali had completed writing a book describing how he saw the events around the assassinations of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1975) and Ziaur Rahman (1981) and the coups-countercoups of November 1975. He told in an interview on the first week of this month that the book would be published after his death.