He fought against the Bulgarians and Austrians during the
First World War;, afterwards he fought for the
Kaçak movement against the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Shaban Polluzha was one of the most famous commanders of the
Drenica area during the
Second World War. During the war, he was also the commander of a part of the front in
Montenegro,
Kolašin and
Sandžak, where he distinguished himself for organization and strategy. He was a member of the Islihat Council (peace court) and, on the proposal of
Miftar Bajraktari, he was appointed chairman of the Islihat in Drenica. In 1941, Shaban Polluzha and his family were imprisoned in Peje because he opposed cooperating with the Italians. and during the war he maintained close ties with the anti-fascist
National Liberation Movement (Albania) and
Yugoslav Partisans, believing their promise that Kosovo would be given
self-determination. Around December 1944, attempts were made to forcefully mobilize Kosovo Albanians into the Yugoslav Army. His force of 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 44 villages there. Shaban Polluzha was killed by
Serbian Partisans in
Trstenik 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". ==Legacy==