Surya Sen, a teacher by profession, was the chief architect of anti-British movement in Chittagong. A resident of Noapara under Chittagong, he was initiated into revolutionary terrorist ideas in 1916 by one of his teachers while he was a student of BA Class in the Behrampore College. On his return to Chittagong in 1918, he became the president of the Chittagong branch of the Indian National Congress, revived the terrorist organisation and became a teacher of the local national school. Hence, he was known as Mastarda (teacher brother).

By 1923 Surya Sen established a number of terrorist organisations (including Jugantar) in different parts of Chittagong district. Aware of the limited equipment and other resources of the terrorists, he was convinced of the need for secret guerilla warfare against the colonial Government. One of his early successful undertakings was a broad day robbery at the treasury office of the Assam-Bengal Railway at Chittagong. His subsequent major success in the anti-British revolutionary violence was the Chittagong Armoury Raid in 1930.

As a fugitive, Surya Sen was hiding at the house of Sabitri Devi, a widow, near Patiya . A police and military force under Captain Cameron surrounded the house on 13 June 1932.Cameron was shot dead while ascending the staircase and Surya Sen along with Pritilata Waddedar and Kalpana Dutta escaped to safety.

Ultimately a villager revealed the hiding place of Surya Sen at Gahira village in Chittagong and in the early hours of 17th February 1933, a Gurkha contingent surrounded the hideout and a soldier seized Surya Sen while he was trying to break the cordon.

Tarakeswar Dastidar , the new president of the Chittagong Branch Jugantar Party, made a preparation to rescue Surya Sen from the Chittagong Jail. But the plot was unearthed and consequently frustrated. Tarakeswar and Kalpana along with others were arrested. Special tribunals tried Surya Sen, Tarakeswar Dastidar, and Kalpana Datta in 1933.

Sentenced to death in August 1933, Surya Sen was hanged in the Chittagong Jail on the 8th January, 1934. At the time of his execution, the detainees kept up a continuous chorus of revolutionary songs. The villager, who had revealed the hiding place of Surya Sen to the Police, was murdered in broad-day light on the 8th January, 1934.