his loot was confiscated. After talks with Fadil Hoxha in late 1944, the brigade was to follow the orders of the Yugoslav command and go north to the front in Syrmia. However, Polluzha was very hesitant and rejected the order, saying that he wanted to stay in Kosovo and defend his home region of Drenica against attacks on Albanians by Chetnik groups. His force (roughly 8,000 men) was then attacked by Yugoslav Partisan units in January 1945. It has been estimated that more than 20,000 local Albanians joined Polluzha, the leader of the Anti-Yugoslav uprising; fighting in Drenica continued until March, and (mainly Serbian) soldiers destroyed forty-four villages there. Shaban Polluzha died in Tërstenik on 21 February 1945. Another uprising of Albanians who refused to leave Kosovo broke out in Mitrovica in February 1945. Yugoslav military operations proceeded with the destruction of the Drenica brigade; by March the revolt was crushed and thousands of Albanians (soldiers and civilians) were killed. Remains of the Seventh Brigade as well as new recruits, who were recruited deceitfully by telling them that they were to be sent to Albania because Hoxha had called them, were gathered in military barracks in Prizren, disarmed and found themselves made prisoners there; this "was the starting point of the saga which became known as the Bar Tragedy" (see Bar massacre). Legacy He was posthumously awarded as "Hero of Kosovo" by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi in 2012. References Sources Malcolm, Noel. "Kosovo." A short history, London (1998). Roszkowski, W., & Kofman, J. (2016). Biographical dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. Routledge, p. 793 - 794. Notes 1871 births 1945 deaths Kosovo Albanians Albanian soldiers Executed Albanian people Drenas Yugoslav Partisans members Albanian military personnel of World War I People killed by Yugoslav Partisans Albanian nationalists People from Drenas Albanian collaborators with Nazi Germany Modern history of Kosovo sq:Miftar Bajraktari