A Passage to Freedom

A Passage to Freedom

বিশেষ দ্রষ্টব্যঃ কপিরাইট সমস্যা যাতে না হয় সেকারণে সকল লেখা শুধুমাত্র ‘only Readable’, ‘non-downloadable’ ও ‘non-clickable’ রাখা হয়েছে। সংগ্রামের নোটবুকের সকল নথি-পত্রিকা-দলিল-সংকলন-বই থেকে নেয়া তথ্য-ছবি-ভিডিও শুধুমাত্র গবেষণার কাজে ব্যবহার্য। বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা সংগ্রাম ও মুক্তিযুদ্ধ গবেষণার জন্য সংগ্রামের নোটবুক একটি অলাভজনক অবাণিজ্যিক স্বেচ্ছাশ্রমে গড়া প্রচেষ্টা।

Foreword

A Passage to Freedom is a faithful description of an eventful and adventurous journey of Dr. Abdul Matin and his family from Karachi to Dhaka through Afghanistan and India after the emergence of an independent Bangladesh in 1971. It is an episode of many exciting, amusing and often scary incidents encountered by the family during their long journey. The ordeals faced by the Bengali community living in Pakistan both during and after the war of independence and the feelings of their frustrations and aspirations are vividly depicted in the book. The background to the war of independence and the descriptions of many historical events, past and recent, will capture the attention of many readers, the younger generations in particular. The author has revealed several interesting incidents relating to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Indira Gandhi, Tajuddin Ahmed, Sheikh Hasina and other important persons that will portray their personalities in new perspectives. The book will, I am sure, enrich our history of independence. This is a story of dire tribulations, but the milk of human kindness shown by neighbours and strangers is never missing and very reassuring for human interactions in difficult times.

Dhaka 22 June, 2009

semulunane Muhammad Habibur Rahman

Introduction to the Secon Edition

As the printed copies of the first edition of the book were sold out within a year or so after its publication, it became necessary to print the second edition. The author is grateful to the readers who admired the book and pointed out a few mistakes which have been corrected in the second edition. Besides minor corrections, there have been very little changes in this edition.

October 2011

Abdul Matin

Introduction

 

A Passage to Freedom narrates the story of our escape from Pakistani captivity and our journey from Karachi to Dhaka after Bangladesh became an independent state through a bloody war in 1971. With the surrender of the Pakistani armed forces in Dhaka we, the Bengali population residing in Pakistan, practically became hostages overnight in a country which had once belonged to us. We were allowed neither to move freely within Pakistan nor to leave the country. So our only option was to flee from there dodging the police and the border security guards. The journey was long, strenuous and extremely risky but full of excitement, adventures and severe challenges, both mental and physical. On the way we passed through several places of historical importance. I am also a witness to many historical events in the sub-continent, including the political movements leading to the war of independence, which harmonize with my story. The history of the independence of Bangladesh has thus become an inseparable part of my narration.

My personal contacts and reminiscences of informal meetings with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect and the first President of Bangladesh, Tajuddin Ahmed, the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh and other important personalities added a special significance to my story. The accounts of events involving my family members, relations and friends are presented mainly as typical examples to depict the conditions prevailing in Pakistan and Bangladesh during the turbulent period. Many families in Bangladesh have similar or more traumatic experiences.

I narrated most of the incidents to my daughters, Usha (Mubarra), Shubarna (Munaiza), and Asha (Maria), and to many of my friends and relations who requested me to write this story. Recently my eldest daughter Usha, who was with us during our journey and now lives in the United States with her family, persuaded me to write this book as many of her American friends, including Prof. Paul Pontius and his wife Louise, wanted to know how we escaped from Pakistan. During my several trips abroad I met many foreigners and the new generations of

Prelude to the War of Independence in Bangladesh

When the British left India in 1947 ending their colonial rule of about

V two hundred years, the country was partitioned into two independent dominions, namely India and Pakistan. Pakistan consisted of two parts, East Pakistan and West Pakistan, physically separated from each other by more than 1000 miles (1600 km) with India in between them. East Pakistan, now independent Bangladesh, was initially known as East Bengal which had been a part of Bengal of British India. West Pakistan comprised Sind, North West Frontier Province, Baluchistan and West Punjab.

Mohammad Ali Jinnah, a Sindhi by birth, was appointed the first Governor General of Pakistan. He in turn chose Liaquat Ali Khan, an immigrant from India, as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan. Both of them lacked administrative experience and foresight. The urgent task of framing the first constitution of Pakistan was undertaken in a casual and leisurely manner. They ruled Pakistan in a princely style. Jinnah died in 1948 and Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in 1951. The motives behind this assassination were never revealed. The country had its first constitution framed by the Constituent Assembly in 1956, nine years after its creation, but only to be abrogated two years later by an army dictator Ayub Khan. There was no general election in Pakistan since its creation and even after the adoption of the new constitution. The country changed seven Prime Ministers before Ayub Khan ousted the last one, Feroze Khan Noon, in 1958.

Out of the seven Prime Ministers, only three were from East Pakistan but born in Urdu speaking families. None of them could speak Bengali fluently and correctly. Only one of them, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, tried his best to speak in Bengali with an interesting mixture of Urdu vocabulary! The frequent changes in the government were triggered mostly by palace intrigues or by army interventions. The general public had no say on such matters.

Ayub Khan ruled the country under martial law for the first four years and later introduced his own brand of democracy called the “Basic Democracy” in which the President and the members of the National Assembly were elected indirectly through an electoral college called the “Basic Democrats”. The election process had a built-in system to perpetuate his dictatorial regime. He ruled the country with an iron fist for ten long years. During this period the economic disparity between East and West Pakistan and the gap between the rich and the poor further widened creating discontent among the people in both the parts of Pakistan The people of the two parts of Pakistan had very little in common except their religion i.e. Islam. They spoke different languages, had different cultures and were of different ethnic origins. Although East Pakistan had the majority of the population of Pakistan, it had very little say in the governance of Pakistan. In fact the West Pakistanis, mainly the Punjabis, dominated the politics of Pakistan. First they tried to impose Urdu as the only state language of Pakistan. Urdu was a foreign language to the Bengalis. They refused to accept Urdu as the only state language and started a movement demanding that both Urdu and Bengali should be the two state languages of Pakistan. Several students of the University of Dhaka and a few other Bengali civilians were martyred on February 21, 1952 while the then Government of East Bengal headed by Nurul Amin as the Chief Minister, tried to crush this movement by the use of force.

The language movement, as it is known, was not confined to the city of Dhaka alone. It spread all over East Bengal in no time. I was a student of class VIII at Mohanganj High School in Netrokona in 1952. Even though we lived in a remote rural area, we too took a very active part in the movement. We boycotted classes, took out processions, paraded the streets of Mohanganj Bazar (market) and held meetings with unprecedented enthusiasm for several days in protest against the police brutalities and for the acceptance of Bengali as one of the two state languages.

This event in history was a turning point in the politics of East Bengal. It renewed the Bengali nationalism among its people. In an election to the East Bengal Legistative Assembly in 1954, an alliance of several political parties, including the Awami League, called the United Front, defeated the Pakistan Muslim League, the ruling political party, by a big margin. The alliance was led by A. K. Fazlul Huq, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, both former Chief Ministers of Bengal during the British Raj, and Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, a prominent national leader of East Bengal. A. K. Fazlul Huq, popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla (the Tiger of Bengal), became the Chief Minister of East Bengal but only to be dismissed by the central Government of Pakistan on very flimsy grounds though he had the support of the majority of the members of the Legislative Assembly of East Bengal.

The language was not the only issue. The Bengalis were being deprived economically also. From 1948 to 1960, East Pakistan earned 70% of Pakistan’s total foreign exchange but its share of utilization of foreign exchange during the same period was only 25%. According to the Reports of the Advisory Panels for the Fourth Five Year Plan, 1970-1975, Vol. published by the Planning Commission of Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan spent Rs.11,334 crores (1 crore=10 million) in West Pakistan compared to Rs.4,593 crores in East Pakistan (i.e. about 40% of that of West Pakistan) from the central budget during 1950 to 1970. In 1948 i.e. soon after the partition of India, East Pakistan had 11 textile mills compared to 9 in West Pakistan. Because of the net transfer of huge resources from East Pakistan to West Pakistan (amounting to S 2.6 billion in 1971 terms), the number of textile mills increased to 150 (16.6 times) in West Pakistan compared to only 26 (2.3 times) in East Pakistan In addition, there was a huge disparity in employment of Bengalis in the Central Government of Pakistan, in both civilian and military services.

In order to stop this economic exploitation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the President of Awami League, a major political party of East Pakistan, put forward his historic 6 point demands in 1966 to make East Pakistan a fully autonomous province within Pakistan, but with its separate currency and full control on its economy. My brother Abdul Momin, an advocate by profession, devoted his full time for the realization of the six points as the Publicity Secretary of the Awami League. He published a leaflet entitled Sonar Bangla Shoshan Keno? (“Why is Golden Bengal so Destitute?”). This leaflet highlighted the economic disparity between East Pakistan and West Pakistan and thus became very popular among the Bengalis.

As the demand for the realization of the 6 points was gaining popularity among the Bengalis, the Government of Pakistan then headed by Ayub Khan, was bent on crushing the aspirations of the Bengali people. As a military dictator he preferred the language of weapons over political dialogue. He put Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other Awami League leaders including my brother behind the bars in June 1966. At that time my brother shared the same cell with Sheikh Mujib in the Dhaka Central Jail. I was later told that it was Sheikh Mujib who had chosen my brother as his cell mate. This brought them closer – both at political and personal levels and they often had heart to heart talks on many topics. My brother once told me that Sheikh Mujib had a guilty conscience for not being able to properly look after his children because of his deep involvement in politics and frequent imprisonments. It was his wife who took care of the family and the children most of the time. For this reason Sheikh Mujib used to be extremely affectionate and amiable to his children whenever he got a chance to be with them.

Bengalis are proud of their culture which is about a thousand years old. They love music including traditional folk music and songs by Lalon, Hason Raja, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and others. Tagore was the first Asian to receive the Nobel Prize and he got it in literature in 1913 for his book of verses entitled Gitanjali (Offering of Songs), originally written in Bengali. He wrote numerous songs which are very popular among the Bengalis. Ayub Khan wanted to cripple our rich Bengali culture. So he banned playing of Tagore’s songs from radio and television in 1967. He thought that by doing so he would be able to isolate and shield East Bengal’s “Islamic” culture from the infiltration of West Bengal’s “Hindu” culture. He forgot that culture does not recognize international boundaries or religious parochialism. It flourishes and flows on its own without obeying any man-made laws. Dr. Qudrat-eKhuda, a renowned Bengali scientist, organized a cultural programme of Tagore’s songs only for four consecutive days at the auditorium of the Institute of Engineers in Dhaka in protest against the decision of Ayub Khan. I remember attending this musical programme with my close friends on all four days to mark our protests against the interference of the central Government in our culture and heritage.

While in jail, my brother Abdul Momin was charged and later convicted by a lower court to several years of imprisonment for the publication of the leaflet, Sonar Bangla Shoshan Keno? He appealed to the High Court against his conviction and was released in February 1969 by an order of the High Court. In 1968, Ayub Khan framed the so-called Agartala Conspiracy Case against Sheikh Mujib and a few others and brought sedition charges against them. The case alleged that Sheikh Mujib and others conspired with India for the seccession of East Pakistan from Pakistan. The usual punishment for sedition is death. The intention of this case was to eliminate Sheikh Mujib for good from the political arena of Pakistan and to continue with the subjugation of the Bengali people. This case worked like a boomerang and made Sheikh Mujib even more popular among his people. Even the state witnesses of the Agartala Conspiracy Case became hostile to the prosecution and they alleged that their earlier statements against Sheikh Mujib had been made under duress. The people of East Pakistan started a mass agitation and freed Sheikh Mujib and other Awami League leaders from prison in February 1969, soon after the release of my brother. The mass movement had become so intense in Dhaka that the West Pakistani trial judge of the case had to flee from his house in disguise wearing the traditional Bengali clothes of his cook and then flew from Dhaka to West Pakistan. The movment later became violent and spread throughout Pakistan. As a result Ayub Khan was ousted from power but replaced by yet another West Pakistani military dictator, Yahya Khan.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had a phenomenal rise as the sole leader of the Bengalis of East Pakistan during the late 1960’s. He was born in Tungipara in Gopalganj District on March 17, 1920. He finished his school education in Gopalganj and later graduated from Islamia College in Kolkata. While studying in Kolkata he came into close contact with Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, his mentor and a former Chief Minister of Bengal during the British period and later a Prime Minister of Pakistan. After the partition of India, he enrolled as a student of law at the University of Dhaka but could not complete this course due to his involvement in politics. He was put behind the bar several times while he was a student of the University of Dhaka for his role in many political movements including the language movement. He founded the Muslim Students’ League in 1948. Gradually he came to prominence, first as a student leader and later as a promising founding member of the Awami League of which he became the General Secretary in 1953. He was elected a member of the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly in 1954 and became a Minister for a brief period. He was a member of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan from 1955 to 1958. After the death of Suhrawardy in 1963, he became the President of the Awami League, the largest political party of the then East Pakistan. His demands for the implementation of the six points, his imprisonment, and finally the abortive Agartala Conspiracy case made him immensely popular among his people.

I was indeed lucky to be personally acquainted with Sheikh Mujib. I was introduced to him by my brother Abdul Momin in January, 1966 when he had hosted a party to celebrate my Ph.D. degree awarded by the University of Liverpool in 1965. Sheikh Mujib shook hands with me very warmly and said, “We need people like you for our country.” It was nice of him to say so. Many of my brother’s close friends and some senior leaders of the Awami League were present at the party. I recall that Tajuddin Ahmed, then General Secretary of Awami League, Muhammad Habibur Rahman, later Chief Justice and Chief Adviser of the 1996 Caretaker Government of Bangladesh, Faqueer Shahabuddin Ahmed, later Attorney General of Bangladesh were present among other guests. During a visit to Dhaka from Karachi, I had an opportunity to go to Sheikh Mujib’s house in Dhanmandi in 1969 after his release from the jail. I was greeted warmly by him as I got down from the car with my brother. He put his right arm around my shoulder and led me to the dining table where Begum Mujib was sitting. He introduced me to her bestowing on me some very kind and generous compliments which I hardly deserved and left us there to join other Awami League leaders who had been waiting for him in another room. Begum Mujib had insisted on my having some local sweets before I took leave.

I may add here that while Sheikh Mujib was in jail, I received a message from him through my brother in 1967 that he had wanted my opinion on Dr. Md. Wazed Miah, then a Senior Scientific Officer of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, who had proposed to marry his daughter Sheikh Hasina. Dr. Miah had joined the Commission while I had been in England for higher studies. He had returned to Dhaka only a month or so before I received this message. I did not have any occasion to know him closely by that time. So I contacted some of my close friends and colleagues at the Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka to collect some information about Dr. Miah. They all spoke highly of him. I sent my opinion about Dr. Miah to Sheikh Mujib based on what I had learned from my friends. Later, Sheikh Hasina’s marriage with Dr. Miah was arranged in a hurry while Sheikh Mujib was still in jail. Sheikh Hasina was Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001 and became the Prime Minister for the second time in January 2009, following her party’s landslide victory in the 2008 parliamentary election. Dr. Miah became the Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission in November 1997 and continued in this position till his retirement in February, 1999. I had an occasion to tell this story to Sheikh Hasina while we were having dinner together at our ancestral home at Mohangamj in Netrokona in 1995. My mother, Shamsunnesa Ahmed, was entertaining the guests among whom were dignitaries like Zillur Rahman, now President of Bangladesh, Motia Chowdhury, now Minister of Agriculture and Syed Ashraful Islam, now Minister of Local Government in Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet. Sheikh Hasina was very keen to know what opinion I had conveyed to her father. I replied jokingly that this was something which I could not share with her.

I came to know from my brother that Sheikh Mujib had instructed his family from the jail to arrange Sheikh Hasina’s marriage as soon as possible because of an earlier disturbing incident. One Bengali civil servant once proposed to marry Sheikh Hasina. While the dialogue about the proposed marriage was in progress as a normal procedure in arranged marriages, Abdul Monem Khan, then Governor of East Pakistan, came to know about this matter. Surprisingly, he called the civil servant to his office and threatened him of dire consequences if he married

Sheikh Hasina. The civil servant was thus forced to retreat from his proposal. Sheikh Mujib was apprehensive that Governor Abdul Monem Khan could perhaps interfere in this marriage also. That was the reason why the wedding took place in such a hurry and without any elaborate ceremony. Sheikh Mujib was not allowed to attend the wedding of his daughter even on parole. This is just one example of the mean vengeance of Abdul Monem Khan’s administration against its political opponents.

I would like to add another very minor but significant example of such political vengeance during the same period. Governor Abdul Monem Khan was a close and childhood friend of my father Khan Shaheb Abdul Aziz Ahmed. When my brother Abdul Momin joined the Awami League in 1964 and became its Publicity Secretary in 1966, Governor Abdul Monem Khan became furious. It was unacceptable to him that his friend’s son could join a political party that was so critical of his administration. First, he put my brother behind the bars. Then, he stopped all allocation of government funds to Mohanganj (now Govt.)

Pilot High School founded by my father in 1931 by donating the entire land of his ancestral home. Governor Khan knew that nothing was dearer to his friend than his school. He, therefore, decided to hurt his friend at his weakest spot. With tears in his eyes my father moved from desk to desk at the Secretariat Building of the Government literally begging the concerned officials for the restoration of the government funds. They were all very sympathetic to him but could do nothing to undo an order that came from the Governor.

Yahya Khan held a free and fair general election throughout Pakistan in 1970, the first of its kind since its creation, but was shocked by its results. To his utter disappointment, the Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then popularly known as “Bangabandhu’ (the friend of Bangladesh), gained an absolute majority in the National Assembly of Pakistan. Under pressure from the army and some West Pakistani politicians including Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, who later became the President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yahya Khan refused to hand over power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On March 1, 1971, he postponed the first session of the National Assembly which was scheduled to be held on March 3. This infuriated the people of East Pakistan. The reaction was spontaneous. People came down to the streets of Dhaka in hundreds of thousands. A general strike was observed throughout East Pakistan on March 3. Everyday there were processions and protest marches on the streets of Dhaka against the decision of Yahya Khan.

Sheikh Mujib, in a historic speech on March 7, 1971 at the Ramna Race Course (now known as Suhrawardy Uddyan) in Dhaka, demanded immediate withdrawal of martial law and transfer of power to the elected representatives of the people. He further called for a non-cooperation movement against the Government of Yahya Khan until his demands were met. He declared, “The struggle this time is for our freedom. The struggle this time is for independence. Since we have shed blood, we shall shed more blood but we shall liberate the people of this country, Insha Allah (God willing). Joy Bangla (Victory for Bangladesh)”. He asked his countrymen to, “… build fortresses in your homesteads and be ready with whatever you have to fight against the enemies”.

The speech mesmerized his audience and inspired the whole Bengali nation. Delivered in his thundering voice, his words still echo in the

hearts and minds of the Bengalis wherever they may be. The Bengalis fully cooperated with Sheikh Mujib and all the government offices in Bangladesh started to operate under his instructions. He thus became the de facto ruler of Bangladesh. Yahya Khan refused to transfer power to him. Instead, he continued to send troops to Dhaka.

Bangabandhu’s speech of March 7 will remain as a milestone in the history of our independence. It is often compared with the frequently quoted speech of President Abraham Lincoln given at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863 during the American civil war when he defined democracy as”… the government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

It is also comparable to Sir Winston Churchill’s speech during the Second World War when he said, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat…”

Bangabandhu’s speech was unique for the richness of its contents, the selection of words spoken in the local dialect and the special style and tone of his delivery-all resonating with the dreams and aspirations of his people. It resurrected a sleeping nation and transformed it into a fighting force. The speech had all the essential elements of a declaration of independence, but just marginally short of the actual declaration for tactical reasons. Political analysts believe that it was a very prudent decision to do so. A declaration of independence on that day would have labelled him as a seccessionist and could thus derail the whole movement for independence. Moreover, the Pakistani army could use this opportunity to massacre thousands of Bengalis, including Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other Awami League leaders, at the Ramna Race Course. Patiently, Bangabandhu was waiting for the opportune moment to make the declaration of independence.

By this time, the Bengalis realized that they could no longer live with Pakistan as equal partners. They began to prepare themselves for a change. They started to dream of their own motherland, an independent Bangladesh. They hoisted the national flag of Bangladesh in each and every house and, under instructions from Sheikh Mujib, started preparations to resist the forces of Yahya Khan with force. Yahya Khan came to Dhaka apparently to negotiate with Sheikh Mujib. He even gave the impression that progress was being made in the talks, but in fact he was only buying time to reinforce his armed forces in Dhaka.

This reinforcement of the armed forces had started long before the general election in 1970. I once flew to Dhaka from Karachi on official business just before the general election. On arrival at the Karachi airport, I found that the departure lounge was unusually empty. It was nearly the time for boarding, yet there were hardly a dozen passengers. Suddenly, a large group of young people entered the departure lounge and filled the entire hall. They were wearing the same type of khaki trousers and white t-shirts and had their hair cut short in the same style. I immediately suspected that they belonged to the armed forces and were travelling by civilian planes to Dhaka over a foreign territory violating the international protocol for the movement of the army personnel. Inside the plane, I was sitting beside one of them. At one stage, instead of asking a direct question about his identity, I asked him if he belonged to a sporting club and was going to Dhaka to participate in a tournament. His reply was very short, “Yes.” When I attempted to ask him a second question, he whispered to my ears in Urdu and said, “Please don’t ask me any question.” This confirmed my earlier suspicion that the young group belonged to the armed forces. During the same trip I met Sheikh Mujib by chance at the Ishwardi airport in Bangladesh. After exchanging pleasantries, I told him about the movement of the armed forces to Dhaka in civilian dresses and in civilian planes. Suddenly he became very grave and only uttered “Hmm.” In the greater interest of Bangladesh, many government servants like me often disclosed confidential and sensitive information to our national leaders or to the press, though such activities were strictly prohibited by our official code of conduct.

24

The War of Independence and the Emergence of Bangladesh on March 25, 1971 Yahya Khan abruptly left Dhaka with orders to Uhis army to crack down on the Bengalis. By mid-night the army moved in and began “Operation Searchlight.” Their main targets were the Dhaka University campus, the Police Line at Rajarbag, the Headquarters of the East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) at Pilkhana and the Hindu community living at Shakharipotti and other areas in old Dhaka. The main objectives of this operation were: i to arrest Sheikh Mujib and other top Awami League leaders; ii. to disarm, arrest or eliminate all Bengali personnel in the armed

forces, para-military forces and the police; iii. to crush the students’ movement; iv. to arrest or eliminate all university teachers and other intellectuals who were supporting the non-cooperation movement of Sheikh Mujib; and iv. to kill the Hindus indiscriminately.

Accordingly, the army started to kill unarmed Bengali students, teachers, civilians, police, EPR personnel and the Hindus recklessly and ruthlessly. In many places they shot Bengalis at sight and in cold blood. Dhaka was completely cut off from the rest of the world so that no news about the massacre could leak out. All foreign journalists, except Simon Dring of the Daily Telegraph who managed to sneak out from his hotel, were deported from Dhaka by force. Simon Dring’s story of the massacre by the Pakistani army in Dhaka was published in the Daily Telegraph on March 30, 1971. According to him about 7,000 people were killed in Dhaka alone and 15,000 in Bangladesh during the first 24 hours of Operation Searchlight. The intention of Yahya Khan was to traumatize the Bengalis by the brutality of his forces. He was under the impression that the Bengalis would thus be cowed down and forced to surrender to his dictatorial authority. It was his anticipation that the whole movement of Sheikh Mujib would be crushed in a month’s time. History shows that Yahya Khan in fact failed to comprehend the mood and aspirations of the Bengalis and underrated their determination and courage. Archer Kent Blood, then U.S. Consul General in Dhaka sent a cable to the State Department on March 27, 1971 describing the situation in Dhaka as follows: “1. Here in Decca we are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror by the Pak[istani] Military. Evidence continues to mount that the MLA authorities have list of AWAMI League supporters whom they are systematically eliminating by seeking them out in their homes and shooting them down. *2. Among those marked for extinction in addition to the A.L. hierarchy are

student leaders and university faculty. In this second category we have reports that Fazlur Rahman head of the philosophy department and a Hindu. M. Abedin, head of the department of history, have been killed. Razzak of the political science department is rumored dead. Also on the list are the

bulk of MNA’s elect and number of MPA’s. 3. Moreover, with the support of the Pakistani] Military non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking poor people’s quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus.”  

During the early hours of March 26, 1971, Sheikh Mujib had declared the independence of Bangladesh, just hours before he was arrested by the forces of Yahya Khan. The declaration of independence by Sheikh Mujib is quoted below:

“Today Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country. On Thursday night. West Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka. Many innocent and unarmed have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other, are going on. The Bengalis are fighting the enemy with great courage for an independent Bangladesh. May Allah aid us in our fight for freedom. Joy Bangla.”

This declaration was announced and broadcast from a radio station in Chittagong on March 26. On the request by local Awami league leaders Major Ziaur Rahman, later a sector commander and President of Bangladesh, also announced the declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 27 from a radio

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*U.S. Consulate (Dacca) Cable, Selective genocide, March 27,1971. (Abreviations: MLA: Martial Law Administration; MNA: Member of the National Assembly; MPA: Member of the Provincial Assembly; AL: Awami League.)

———-

station at Kalurghat in Chittagong. This declaration further inspired the young Bengalis and those in the armed forces in particular to revolt against the Pakistani army and to join the war of independence. Bangabandhu was flown to Pakistan after his arrest. The rest of the leaders of Awami League escaped arrest and fled to neighbouring India. The Bengalis serving in the Pakistani military, para-militry, and police forces revolted against the Government of Yahya Khan and initiated the war of independence together with civilian volunteers. The Awami League leaders who fled to India formed the Government of Bangladesh in exile on April 10, 1971. The new government with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as President, Syed Nazrul Islam as Acting President in absence of Sheikh Mujib and Tajuddin Ahmed as Prime Minister took oath in a mango grove in Meherpur in Bangladesh. The place was later re-named as Mujibnagar and the Government in exile was popularly known as *Mujibnagar Government’.

Tajuddin Ahmed united and mobilized all the liberation forces fighting against the Pakistani army and formed the armed wing of the Government of Bangladesh called the “Mukti Bahini” (freedom fighters) under a united command. Col. M.A.G. Osmany, a retired army officer promoted to the rank of General, was appointed the Commander-inChief of the Mukti Bahini. Group Captain A. K. Khandaker, now Minister of Planning in the cabinet of Sheikh Hasina, was appointed the Deputy Commander-in-Chief. Gen. Osmany divided Bangladesh into 10 sectors and appointed senior Bengali army officers including Major K. M. Shafiullah, Major Ziaur Rahman, later President of Bangladesh, Major Khaled Musharraf among others as sector commanders. The Indian army provided training and logistic support including arms and ammunitions to the Mukti Bahini who fought mainly a guerilla type war against a well-equipped and modern Pakistani army.

The war continued for about nine months. During this period, nearly three million Bengalis were killed, most of them unarmed, by the Pakistani forces. In many cases, the Bengalis were asked to stand in line for security checks and then treacherously gunned down. Two hundred thousand Bengali women lost their honour in Pakistani army camps. Many houses, sometimes whole villages, were burned down to ashes by the Pakistani forces or by their local collaborators, known as “Razakars”. Ten million Bengalis left Bangladesh and took shelter in India. It was a huge humanitarian effort on the part of India to provide food, shelter, water, sanitation, and other logistic support to such a huge population. Another ten million left their own homes, mostly in urban areas, and took shelter in remote rural areas inside Bangladesh for safely. Thus they became refugees in their own country. A comprehensive report entitled “Genocide” by Anthony Mascarenhas was published in the Sunday Times on June 13, 1971. In his report he described how unarmed civilians were being systematically murdered and why 5 million Bengali refugees (by June, 1971) took shelter in India.

There was hardly any family in Bangladesh that was not affected in one way or another by the war. I lost my cousin, Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan, a senior lecturer of the University of Dhaka and my nephew, Kanchan (Ali Ahsan Khan), who was a student of Dhaka College and was staying with my cousin inside the university campus for preparation for his Higher Secondary Certificate Examination. They were killed in cold blood on March 26, 1971 during the early hours when the Pakistani forces first attacked the Dhaka University campus.

Although my cousin and nephew were killed on March 26, 1971, I first got this information during the first week of April from Dr. Muhammad Ahsan, my colleague in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, who was flying with his wife Majeda Saber from Dhaka to Istanbul via Karachi. I could not get the information earlier as all communications with Dhaka were cut off by the Pakistani army after their crack-down on March 25. I was so shocked and perturbed by this news that I found it difficult to drive home from my office. I may add here that Dr. Ahsan’s wife Majeda Saber is my niece. Her maternal grandfather was “Khan Bahadur” Kubir Uddin Khan of Shahildeo of Netrakona. He was a Member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly (MLA) from 1937 to 1946 and a cousin of my father.

My brother, Abdul Momin, then an elected member of the National Assembly, his wife Rebeca Momin, now a Member of Parliament, and their only daughter Joya (Farzana Momin), then only four months old, lived at Azimpur together with my eldest sister, Nurennesa Khanam, mother of Kanchan. Under instructions from Bangabandhu, my brother went into hiding on the night of March 25 like other Awami League leaders. There was a curfew in Dhaka on the following day. When the curfew was relaxed for a few hours on March 27, Kanchan’s elder brothers, Ratan (Ali Afzal Khan) and Nandan (Dr. Ali Athar Khan) went to the apartment of Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan and were shocked to discover the bullet-hit and

blood-soaked bodies of Kanchan and Dr. F. R. Khan lying on the floor. They had no time to mourn over the dead bodies as they had only a couple of hours to arrange for the funeral of the two bodies during the relaxation of the curfew. They brought the bodies to their home with the help of a close family friend. Nobody was available to wash the dead bodies or to dig the graves. The two brothers, their father, Ali Akbar Khan, and the family friend washed the bodies, dug the graves and offered the janaza prayers (Muslim services for the dead) and buried the bodies at the Azimpur graveyard, only a few yards away from their house.

My brother and my sisters soon left Dhaka with their families by crossing the river Buriganga and took shelter at a village called Ati. When the Pakistani army crossed the river Buriganga to attack Jinjira in early April, they moved further away and took shelter in another village called Kalatiya. The hospitality extended by the rural people to the fleeing population from the urban areas during this period is unprecedented and historic. Often they vacated their own houses to accommodate their guests” and provided food, drink and other facilities to them.

There was a huge exodus of people from the urban areas to the remote rural areas of Bangladesh. In a couple of days, Dhaka looked like a ghost city with empty houses and deserted streets. People fled from the city in all kinds of transport. When no transport was available, they simply walked carrying their belongings on their shoulders. Even the fleeing population was not spared by the Pakistani army. Many people were killed while they were crossing the river Buriganga by country boats. The remaining residents of Dhaka were living under constant fear of being arrested or killed by the Pakistani army.

My brother did not stay at Kalatiya for long. He walked several hundred miles in disguise for days through rural areas, to avoid the Pakistani army, to meet my parents in my maternal uncle’s house at Mohanpur, Netrokona before crossing the border to India. My mother failed to recognize him in his newly grown beard when he was entering my uncle’s house. He then went to India to join other Awami League leaders. My sisters and other relations moved to Kishoreganj to stay at the house of Reazuddin Ahmed, my second brother-in-law. My sister Hajera Ahmed and her husband Reazuddin Ahmed did a remarkable job in looking after and taking care of my relations after they had left Dhaka and then moved to their house in Kishoreganj. My brother’s family, my eldest sister and her family later moved to my maternal uncle’s house at Mohanpur, Netrakona. My brother’s wife, Rebeca Momin, and daughter, Joya, soon left Mohanpur to join my brother in Kolkata. My nephew Nandan also went to India with my sister-in-law and niece.

Even in remote villages the people were always scared of the Pakistani army because of the atrocities perpetrated by them. Nurul Halim, husband of my youngest sister Fatema Halim, who stayed in Dhaka and kept contacts with me in Karachi and the rest of our family members in Bangladesh, once went to meet my relations staying at the house of Reazuddin Ahmed in village Bhatiya in Kishoreganj. Nurul Halim is very tall and has a fair complexion unlike normal Bengalis. The villagers mistook him as a Pakistani army personnel. Soon the news spread around the village that the Pakistani army had arrived. The villagers including my relations immediately began to flee from the village to the neighbouring areas. Later they discovered to their great relief that the lone visitor was not a Pakistani army personnel but one of our relations!

My wife’s brother Dr. Ziauddin Ahmad, who was my colleague in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, and his father-in-law Dr. A.R. Mallick, then Vice-Chancellor of the Chittagong University, also fled to India with their families and joined the war of independence. We could not communicate directly with our relations in India. We had to send our letters to my cousin Dr. Bazlur Rahman Khan, elder brother of Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan, in London. He used to redirect our letters to our relations in India.

My parents also had to abandon our house and take shelter in my maternal uncles’ house at Mohanpur. The entire living portion of our ancestral house in the countryside, where I was born, was burned to ashes by the Pakistanis and their local collaborators just because my brother was a leader of the Awami League and participated in the war of independence. Our neighbours had been able to remove some of the movable properties from the house, mainly the furniture, the crockery and the cutleries, and stored them in different houses in our village before the house was burnt down. One of our neighbours took possession of a steel

trunk which contained a collection of my books, mostly English paperbacks. It also contained some newspaper clippings and magazines with stories, poems and other articles which I had written and published during my student life. Being advised by other villagers, our neighbours threw all my books and magazines into the nearby river! I could not blame them for this action. They had good reasons to do so. During the mop-up operations, the Pakistani army targeted mostly the young and the educated Bengalis. Our neighbours thought that the possession of English books could give the wrong impression that they were educated people and would be easy targets of the Pakistani army. So they thought it wise to get rid of the books in order to save their lives!

My father, “Khan Shaheb” Abdul Aziz Ahmed, was a very respectable and influential person in our locality. He was the President of the local Union Board (local government) at Mohanganj and an Honorary Magistrate with judicial powers at Netrokona for thirty years. He is the founder of Mohanganj Government Pilot High School, Mohanganj Degree College, the Mohanganj Eidgah Math (open compound for mass congregation for Eid prayers) and many other local institutions. Because of his social work and philanthropic activities, he was awarded the title of “Khan Shaheb” by the British Raj of India. As a local leader of the Muslim League, a political organization of the Musiims in India, he fought for the creation of Pakistan together with his cousin “Khan Bahadur” Kubir Uddin Khan. My father contested for a seat in the provincial assembly in the 1954 general election as a candidate of the Muslim League but was defeated like other League candidates even though he was personally popular in his constituency. My mother, Shamsunnesa Ahmed, was a pious and kind hearted lady. She later became the Chairperson of the local Women’s Council (Mohila Shomiti) and founded the Kaziaty-Paleha Primary School in our village. With all their contributions to and sacrifices for the society and the country, they could not escape from the wrath of the Pakistani forces. One of my uncles, Faizuddin Thakur, who had been looking after our empty house at Mohanganj, was arrested by the Pakistani army and was about to be killed. One of our local Urdu-speaking house tenants, Abdul Hadi, arranged his release from the army custody. Abdul Hadi, like other Urdu speaking refugees, was friendly with the Pakistani army,

My maternal uncles belonged to the famous Thakur family of Amgail, a village not far from Mohanpur where they settled after moving out of Amgail. It is widely believed in our locality that their ancestors were once chaste Hindu Brahmins. They were also very wealthy and powerful zamindars (landlords). There is no proof of their previous affluence now except a few very large and practically dry ponds around their dilapidated houses. There is an interesting story about their conversion to Islam. It is said that once, they invited one of their Muslim subjects to their house and forced him to eat with them in order to convert him to Hinduism. When this was done and the family was celebrating the conversion of a Muslim into Hinduism, the other Hindu Brahmins of the locality proclaimed that a Muslim could not be converted to Hinduism by feeding him in a Brahmin’s house and, in fact, the Brahmins lost their own religion Hinduism by eating with a Muslim. They no longer accepted the Thakur family of Amgail as Brahmins and cut off all social contacts with them. Being abandoned by fellow Brahmins, the Thakur family of Amgail had no other option but to accept Islam. They however retained their title of Thakur even after their conversion to Islam.

My father-in-law, Salahuddin Ahmad, a former Registrar and later an Inspector of Colleges of the Rajshahi University, was living a retired life when the war of independence broke out. Although he originally came from Paigram Koshba of Khulna, he settled in Rajshahi. He too had to leave his house in Rajshahi with his entire family and take shelter in a distant village called Durgapur. It may be mentioned here that my father-in-law was a supporter of Pakistan till the army crackdown on March 25, 1971. Later he expressed his reaction to the barbarity of the Pakistani army in the following words: “Having seen what the Pakistani army had done to the Bengalis, I developed a hatred for them. I was soon convinced that we could no longer live with the Pakistanis.”

Even though the war was initially confined in Bangladesh, its impact was felt by the Bengalis living in Karachi also. One of our Bengali colleagues Abdul Aziz Khandaker, a Principal Engineer of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) then posted at the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant was taken to police custody together with his sister-in-law on suspicion that they had links with the war of independence. Khandaker’s sister-in-law was staying with him as a guest while flying from Dhaka to London. She was married to Anwar Ansari Khan who lived in London and was an active supporter of the war of independence like many other Bengalis living there. The police suspected that she would be carrying some explosive devices like a bomb to blow-up a plane of the Pakistan International Airlines while flying to London! There was perhaps one more reason for their suspicion. One Bengali army captain, who was friendly with the family of Khandaker, deserted the Pakistani army and crossed the border with India to join the war of independence in Bangladesh. Both Khandaker and his sister-in-law were released by the police after several days of interrogation when they found no evidence to support their suspicions. After their release, the sister-in-law was allowed to fly to London but Khandaker was not allowed to join his original post at the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant. He was transferred to Dhaka instead.

Dr. I. H. Usmani, then Chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, called a meeting of the senior Bengali engineers of PAEC working at the Headquarters to discuss the case of Khandaker. Mohammad Yusuf, then member of PAEC, M. Anisur Rahman, Director of the Nuclear Power Division, MA. Quaiyum, Principal Engineer, A. Aziz Khandaker and I were present at this meeting along with Dr. Ishfaq Ahmed, then Secretary of the Commission. Dr. Usmani explained to us that the country was passing through a difficult period and stressed that all of us should work with patriotism and a clear conscience. He further told us that instead of terminating the services of Khandaker, he took a lenient decision to transfer him to Dhaka. Mohammad Yusuf whom we knew as a calm and quiet person suddenly became very vocal and agitated. He told Dr. Usmani that one could not have a clear conscience knowing what was happening in Bangladesh and being indifferent about it. He then referred to the atrocities being committed by the Pakistani armed forces on the innocent and unarmed Bengalis in Bangladesh. Dr. Usmani being a highly enlightened and intelligent person was aware of the situation in Bangladesh. He did not contradict what Mohammad Yusuf had said. At the meeting I thanked Dr. Usmani for his decision to transfer Khandaker to Dhaka but reminded him that the question of termination of his services could not arise as neither any charges were brought against him by the police after a thorough investigation nor was he found guilty by any court of law after a fair trial. Dr. Usmani did not disagree with me. When we came out of the office of Dr. Usmani, Khandaker gently patted me on my back in appreciation of our support for him. Khandaker soon left for Dhaka with his family and joined the Atomic Energy Centre there. I may mention here that Khandaker played the role of a “match-maker” in arranging my marriage with Fariha in September 1967.

A few months later, during a meeting with Dr. Usmani, I took the liberty of frankly discussing the situation in Bangladesh with him. I mentioned to him about an editorial entitled “Silence is a criminal offence” published in the Sunday Times of London. I had not read this editorial but had listened to a review of it on the BBC radio. The editorial mentioned about the genocide being perpetrated by the Pakistani armed forces in Bangladesh and then wondered why the intelligentsia in Pakistan was silent about it. The editorial concluded that it would amount to a criminal offence if the intelligensia remained silent under the prevailing circumstances. Dr. Usmani listened to me very attentively and then asked, “Please tell me, Matin, what can I do?” I suggested that he could discuss the matter with Prof. Abdus Salam of Imperial College, London, then Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of Pakistan and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979, A. K. Brohi, a prominent lawyer, and Dr. Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, a prominent scientist of Pakistan and then take up the matter with the President of Pakistan. He agreed to my suggestion and promised to talk to Prof Salam during his next visit to Pakistan. I believe he did not get a chance to do so as events were moving very fast in Bangladesh soon after my meeting with him.

May I mention here that Prof. Salam came to Karachi from London soon after the general election of November, 1970 and carried a gift for Bangabandhu. He returned to London without getting a chance of personally presenting the gift to him. I was later requested by Burney, Director of Administration, PAEC to carry this gift to Dhaka and present it to Bangabandhu. I gladly agreed but did not get the chance to do so because of the deteriorating political situation in Bangladesh.

The pro-liberation Bengali intelligentsia led by Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dhaka, Dr. A. R. Mallick, former Vice-Chancellor of the Chittagong University and Prof. Rehman Sobhan of the University of Dhaka played an important role in mobilizing international support for the independence of Bangladesh. With the active support and assistance from the Bengali communities living abroad, they travelled all over Europe and North America, arranging street rallies in major cities and meeting important political personalities for gaining the support of the people and their leaders.

While the Pakistani army was involved in the worst form of genocide in history, the role played by the Government of the United States of America on the conflict in Bangladesh was very controversial. They supported their traditional ally Pakistan by supplying arms to them for use against the unarmed civilians in Bangladesh. They also extended full support to Pakistan at all international fora including the United Nations in spite of the fact that the war was imposed by a military dictator who had refused to hand over power to the leader of the majority party in the National Assembly elected by the people in a free and fair election conducted by none other than him. Violations of human rights and suppression of democracy in Bangladesh were overlooked by the administration of the United States of America only to please their ally Pakistan. Many Americans including Senator Edward Kennedy however supported the cause of Bangladesh. Thousands of Americans attended the “Concert for Bangladesh” at the Madison Square Garden to raise funds for the Bengali refugees in India. The concert was organized and attended by George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Ravi Shankar and others.

On April 6, 1971 Archer Kent Blood, the US Consul General in Dhaka sent the following cable to the State Department dissenting with the U.S. policy on Bangladesh: “Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy Our government has failed to denounce atrocities. Our government has failed to take forceful measures to protect its citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to placate the West Pakistan] dominated government and to lessen any deservedly negative international public relations impact against them. Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankrupt.(…) But we have chosen not to intervene, even morally, on the grounds that the Awami conflict, in which unfortunately the overworked term genocide is applicable, is purely an internal matter of a sovereign state, Private Americans have expressed disgust. We, as professional civil servants, express our dissent with current policy and fervently hope that our true and lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redirected Pakistan also received support from China which became a new ally of the United States. On the other hand, the Soviet Union, as it was known then, gave very firm support to Bangladesh. The stand taken by the Soviet Union in support of the independence of Bangladesh actually prevented any direct US intervention on the conflict. The vetoes cast by the Soviet Union at the UN Security Council to oppose a ceasefire when Pakistan was about to surrender in Dhaka helped the war to come to its inevitable conclusion without any undue delay.

When innocent and unarmed Muslims in Bangladesh were being systematically tortured and killed, the Arab countries maintained a conspicuous silence. Instead of protesting against such killings, they supported Pakistan in their blind belief that Pakistan was fighting a war for the cause of Islam by killing muslims!

Famous French writer André Malraux, then Minister of Culture of France, volunteered to join the war of independence in Bangladesh as a freedom fighter. This revolutionary and historic move by André Malraux received world-wide publicity and helped to mobilize international support for our war of independence. John Stonehouse and Peter Shore, both Members of Parliament in UK, were critical of the Conservative Government of Edward Heath for its role in the conflict in Bangladesh and mobilized public opinion in favour of the independence of Bangladesh.

Initially, India provided only logistic support to the Mukti Bahini and did not take any direct part in the military operations inside Bangladesh. The entire war was then fought by the Mukti Bahini under the command of the Bengali army officers who had deserted the Pakistani armed forces and joined the liberation army. The deltaic terrain  U.S. Consulate (Dacca) Cable, Dissent from U.S. Policy Toward East Pakistan, April 6, 1971, Confidential, 5 pp. Includes Signatures from the Department of State. Source: RG 59, SN 70-73 Poland Def. From: Pol Pak-U.S. To: Pol 17-1 Pak-U.S. Box 2535 of Bangladesh, full of mighty rivers, marshy lands and large water bodies favoured the local Mukti Bahini. The tales of the mighty rivers in the Bengal basin once frightened the invading soldiers of Alexander the Great and forced them to turn back without invading the Nanda Empire in the northern and eastern region of India. Yahya Khan was not perhaps aware of this part of the Indian history. The Pakistani forces were not used to fighting in such wet and marshy environment. Moreover, they had no moral grounds to fight the war. As a result, the Mukti Bahini controlled most of the areas of rural Bangladesh while the Pakistani forces consolidated their positions only in major urban areas.

Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, a renowned literateur of Bangladesh, in a booklet entitled History of the Liberation War describes the bravery of the freedom fighters in the following words: “Bangladesh Liberation war was truly a people’s war. Countless students, farmers, workers, and people from all spheres of life took part. The indigenous people from the plain land and the hill also joined the liberation war. They had no shoes on their feet or clothes on their backs and no necessary weaponry-they didn’t even have any time to train. In the words of Khaled Musharraf, the battle field was their training ground. They had unbelievable courage and deep compassion for their motherland.

There is no end to the stories of bravery of these freedom fighters. One small story from a book written by a Pakistani army official (Witness to Surrender by Siddik Salik) goes like this:

“A young freedom fighter was arrested by the Pakistani army in Rohanpur area of Rajshahi in June 1971. Despite terrible torture, he refused to disclose any information. A Pakistani major finally held a stengun to his chest and said, answer my question or I’ll kill you right now. The fearless young freedom fighter bent down and kissed the ground of his motherland for the last time, stood up straight and said, I’m ready to die. My blood will free this country.”

The participation of Bengali women in the war of independence was very remarkable. Some of them took arms and fought side by side with their male counterparts. Taramon Bibi was one of them. She was awarded the title of “Bir Protik” (Symbol of Valour). Bengali housewives regularly provided food and shelter to the freedom fighters. Some female doctors and nurses took care of the wounded freedom fighters. Many female singers and artists entertained and inspired the freedom fighters and the Bengali population with their patriotic songs and performances.

Pakistan always claimed that the war was its internal matter. After about nine months of fighting, the Pakistanis were practically exhausted and at the point of collapse at the hands of the Mukti Bahini. The Pakistanis did not want to lose a war against the Bengalis only. They preferred a more “honourable” defeat, perhaps against a much stronger force! So they tried to escalate and internationalize” the war by attacking India on December 3, 1971. India attacked back by air, by land, and by sea. The Indian attack was so severe that in the following morning, we found out that the entire sky of Karachi city had been overcast by black fumes coming out of the burning oil storage tanks accurately bombed by the Indian planes. The sun was not sighted in the sky for several days. It is believed that Bengali pilots, who once served in the Pakistan Air Force, helped the Indian pilots to navigate their planes during such attacks.

During the initial period of the air attack, we slept at night on the ground floor of our house beneath the staircase for safety. By day, we often watched the dog-fights between the Pakistani and the Indian fighter planes from our rooftop. The local Pakistanis did the same and often shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) welcoming any down-fall of planes without knowing that most of the planes that fell on the ground belonged to their own air force! The Pakistanis were so frightened by the severity of the attack that one of my office attendants once came to me and said, “Sir, this war should end soon, whatever be the outcome!”

In Bangladesh, the Pakistani air force was totally destroyed within a couple of days after the first air attack. The Indian navy blockaded all fresh military supplies from Pakistan to Bangladesh. With no air support and no fresh supplies or reinforcement from Pakistan, the Pakistani forces in Bangladesh realized that they were fighting a losing war. They lost both fighting power and moral courage. With the full cooperation and active support of the local population, it was relatively an easy task for the Mukti Bahini and the Indian forces to advance very fast towards Dhaka. Areas that were under the control of the Pakistani forces began to fall one by one like a deck of cards. The Pakistani forces were virtually on the run to save their lives. There were some bitter fights in a few places, but in the end the Pakistanis either surrendered or were annihilated. Finally on December 16, 1971, the Pakistani forces surrendered to the joint command of the Indian forces and the Bengali Mukti Bahini. Bangladesh thus became a free and independent country.

The Government of Bangladesh formed in exile soon returned to Dhaka and took over the administration of the country. December 16 is now celebrated as the Victory Day and March 26 as the Independence Day of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh selected its own national flag and national anthem. The flag has a bottle green background with the red sun close to its centre. The green colour represents the greenery of the country, its vitality and youthfulness. The sun represents the blood of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the war of independence. For the national anthem, a popular song by Rabindranath Tagore-Amar sonar Bangla (my golden Bengal) was selected. It may be mentioned here that the national anthem of India was also composed by Tagore. It is a unique honour and tribute to Tagore that two countries have their national anthems composed by him.

It is worth mentioning here that the entire information media of Pakistan were under the full control of the Government of Pakistan during the war. The majority of the people of Pakistan knew very little other than what they were told by the controlled media. Most of the people of Pakistan were completely in the dark about what was actually happening in Bangladesh. They hardly knew anything about the genocide taking place in Bangladesh. Absurd stories were circulating freely among the people of Pakistan to make them believe that Bangladesh was inhabited by Hindus who were Indian agents and so the killing of the Bengalis was justified as a part of a cleansing operation. Some Pakistanis believed that Tajuddin Ahmed, the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh, was an Indian Hindu and a Major in the Indian army who was sneaked into Bangladesh by the Indian Government to break up Pakistan and annex Bangladesh to the Indian Territory. We also heard stories that a large number of “heavenly warriors draped in white robes and riding on white horses had descended from the sky to fight along with the Pakistani army! We have no report, however, of any encounter between the heavenly warriors and the Mukti Bahini (Freedom Fighters) in any battle field!. The news of the surrender of the Pakistani forces in Bangladesh was broadcast by the electronic media in Pakistan as follows on December 17, 1971:

“The fighting in East Pakistan has ceased following an agreement between the local commanders in East Pakistan.” The bitter truth was never told to the people.

41

The people of Bangladesh hardly listened to Radio Pakistan during the war. They tuned to the Bengali service of BBC for objective news and news analysis. The Swadheen Bangla Betar Kendra (the Radio Station of Independent Bangladesh) was also very popular among them. Many renowned Bengali singers, writers, poets, artists, radio, TV and cultural personalities like Samar Das, Ajit Roy, Belal Mohammad, Hassan Imam, Aly Zaker, Apel Mahmood, Rathindra Nath Roy and Shaheen Samad joined the Swadheen Bangla Betar Kendra and inspired the Mukti Bahibi and the Bengali population. A programme called “Charam Patra” (Letters of Ultimatum) by M. R. Akhter Mukul became a household name in Bangladesh at that time. Every day people waited eagerly to listen to this programme and other news about the war. The Akashbani Kolkata’ (the Bengali service of All India Radio) also rendered valuable service to the cause of independence in Bangladesh. The emotional voice of Dev Dulal Bandyopadhyay of Akashbani Kolkata still resonates in our ears.

During the war, the Indian army advanced substantially also in the western front and occupied some strategic territories in West Pakistan. If hey advanced further, they could easily cut off the supply routes to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, and to Lahore, the capital of West Pakistan, from Karachi, the main port city. There were strong rumours that India was advancing inside West Pakistan to force President Yahya Khan, instead of Gen. Niazi in Dhaka, to surrender. To save Pakistan from such an eventuality, the United States of America sent its seventh fleet to the Bay of Bengal, India declared a ceasefire after the surrender of the Pakistani command in Bangladesh indicating that it had no such intention The people of Bangladesh hardly listened to Radio Pakistan during the war. They tuned to the Bengali service of BBC for objective news and news analysis. The Swadheen Bangla Betar Kendra (the Radio Station of Independent Bangladesh) was also very popular among them. Many renowned Bengali singers, writers, poets, artists, radio, TV and cultural personalities like Samar Das, Ajit Roy, Belal Mohammad, Hassan Imam, Aly Zaker, Apel Mahmood, Rathindra Nath Roy and Shaheen Samad joined the Swadheen Bangla Betar Kendra and inspired the Mukti Bahibi and the Bengali population. A programme called “Charam Patra” (Letters of Ultimatum) by M. R. Akhter Mukul became a household name in Bangladesh at that time. Every day people waited eagerly to listen to this programme and other news about the war. The Akashbani Kolkata’ (the Bengali service of All India Radio) also rendered valuable service to the cause of independence in Bangladesh. The emotional voice of Dev Dulal Bandyopadhyay of Akashbani Kolkata still resonates in our ears.

During the war, the Indian army advanced substantially also in the western front and occupied some strategic territories in West Pakistan. If they advanced further, they could easily cut off the supply routes to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, and to Lahore, the capital of West Pakistan, from Karachi, the main port city. There were strong rumours that India was advancing inside West Pakistan to force President Yahya Khan, instead of Gen. Niazi in Dhaka, to surrender. To save Pakistan from such an eventuality, the United States of America sent its seventh fleet to the Bay of Bengal, India declared a ceasefire after the surrender of the Pakistani command in Bangladesh indicating that it had no such intention.

Chowdhury, Dr. Fazle Rabbi, Sirajuddin Hussain, Shahidullah Kaiser, Nizamuddin Ahmed among many others. December 14 is observed every year in Bangladesh as the “Martyred Intellectual’s Day” to pay respect to the intellectuals killed during the war of independence.

Throughout the war, Bangababdhu was held as a prisoner in Pakistan even though the entire war in Bangladesh was being fought by the Mukti Bahini in the name of Bangabandhu. During this period, the military authority in Pakistan again brought charges of sedition against Bangabandhu. This time they held the trial in camera so that no information could leak out. It was later revealed that the court had sentenced Bangabandhu to death. The execution of the order, however, could not be carried out due to the surrender of the Pakistani forces in Dhaka and the subsequent change of Government in Pakistan. There was also intense diplomatic pressure from the international community on Pakistan not to harm Bangabandhu. He was thus saved from the gallows once again.

The Bengalis are proud of their role during the war of independence. The whole nation, except a few traitors, stood united under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to free the country from Pakistani occupation. The Bengalis created history by their sacrifices, show of courage, fellow-feelings, unity and discipline. The war of our independence will continue to shine as the golden chapter in the history of Bangladesh. The whole nation pays homage to the innumerable martyrs who made the supreme sacrifices for their motherland. We owe our independence to them. We shall never be able to repay our debt to them. Among them, seven martyrs were posthumously awarded the highest honour of “Bir Sreshtho” (the Most Valiant Hero) for their bravery and courage. They include: Shaheed Mohiuddin Jahangir, Shaheed Hamidur Rahman, Shaheed Mostofa Kamal, Shaheed Ruhul Amin, Shaheed Matiur Rahman, Shaheed Munshi Abdur Rouf and Shaheed Nur Mohammad Sheikh.

Our Stay in Karachi

I was posted in Karachi in West Pakistan (now Pakistan) in 1968. 1. Karachi, situated on the coast of the Arabian Sea, was the main port city of West Pakistan. It was the capital of Pakistan from 1947 till 1958. I was working in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission as Principal Engineer and residing with my wife, Fariha and daughter, Usha on the first floor of a two-storied house in PECHS close to my office on the Drigh Road. Like me, there were several hundred thousand Bengalis serving in government and private organizations throughout Pakistan.

We were lucky to have very good neighbours in Karachi. Soon after we had moved to our house in Karachi in 1968, an old lady used to talk to my wife frequently from our neighbouring house over the boundary wall. Even though her mother tongue was Urdu, she could speak reasonably good Bengali. She used to invite my wife to visit her. I advised my wife to be cautious as we were new in the locality and did not know much about our neighbours. The old lady, however, came to know from my wife that I was an engineer and I had studied in Dhaka. One day she came outside and asked my wife, “What is your husband’s name?”

My wife told her my name. She asked again, “Is your husband an electrical engineer?” My wife replied, “Yes.” She then asked, “Does he have a Ph.D. degree?” My wife replied, “Yes.” With a broad smile on her face she said to my wife, “Your husband was my son’s student in Dhaka. My son’s name is Waqar Ahmed. Tell your husband that my son is here now. He should come to see him.” Needless to say that the questions she was asking my wife were being prompted by her son who was sitting inside the house.

When I returned home from my office in the afternoon my wife asked me, “Did you have a teacher by the name of Waqar Ahmed in Dhaka?”

I replied, “Yes, I did. He was Professor and Head of the Electrical Engineering Department at Ahsanullah Engineering College. Why are you asking me this question?” She said, “The old lady who often talks to me from the neighbouring house is his mother.” “Really?” I asked her with great surprise. Then she narrated to me the whole conversation she had in the morning. We immediately decided to visit them in the evening.

As we arrived at the house, Prof. Waqar’s mother received us warmly and said to my wife, “I have been asking you to visit me for days but you never came. Now you have come because your husband’s teacher is here!” We had no appropriate reply to her comment. We simply apologized to her for not visiting her earlier. The neighbouring house actually belonged to Begum Qureshi, a widow, who was Prof. Waqar’s sister. His mother, Begum Wahab, originally came from Kolkata but she settled in Dhaka with her son. She was well known in Dhaka during the 50’s and 60’s for her social work and as an active member of the All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA). Prof. Waqar was a very learned and sophisticated person. Later he became the Principal of Ahsanullah Engineering College and retired as the Director of Technical Education, East Pakistan.

her house, we became their close family friends. We visited each other frequently and we were invited to all of their social functions. Begum Qureshi was very helpful to my wife during her first pregnancy. We also used to visit Begum Wahab and Prof. Waqar Ahmed whenever we came to Dhaka. It is unfortunate that Prof. Waqar had to leave Dhaka after the independence of Bangladesh even though he had learned Bengali in order to settle in Dhaka. He took a job in the Middle East and died there a few years later Our neighbour on the other side was known as Dehlavi. The name suggests that the family originally came from Delhi. He was a very rich, pious and generous businessman. He had several grown up sons who got married one by one during our stay in Karachi. We were invited to all the wedding receptions. He used to sacrifice i.e. slaughter a large number of goats during the Eid-ul-Azha (the second Eid festival of the Muslims) every year and we used to receive generous portions of meat from them on every occasion. His wife held regular weekly religious meetings of the ladies of the locality where she used to explain the Hadith (sayings of our Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him) and the meanings of the Holy Quran.

Ali Imam, a very famous and respectable artist of Pakistan, lived in a house just opposite to ours. Even though his mother tongue was Urdu he married a Bengali lady. He had an art gallery at his house and he held regular exhibitions of paintings by contemporary Pakistani artists. Murtaza Bashir, now a famous painter of Bangladesh, was a regular visitor to Imam’s house like other painters of that time. We received regular invitations to the inaugural functions of art exhibitions held at his gallery. We were introduced to Ali Imam by Prof. Syed Ali Ashraf who was Professor of English and Head of the Department of Bengali at the Karachi University, Prof. Ashraf and his wife were very close to us even though we were not related to them. They had no children and they used to treat my wife like their own daughter. Our relationship with Prof. Ashraf was very cordial in spite of the fact that we had frequent arguments because of our differences of opinion on the war of independence in Bangladesh. He believed in the unity of Pakistan and supported Pakistan during the war even though he was a Bengali by birth. He was very optimistic that Pakistan would ultimately win. The surrender of the Pakistani army in Bangladesh was a great disappointment to him.

I would like to mention here that I was recruited in early 60’s by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), together with other engineers and scientists, for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Project (RNPP) in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Sponsored by PAEC, I received a post-graduate diploma D.I.C. in nuclear power in 1963 from the Imperial College, London and, as I mentioned earlier, a Ph.D. degree in nuclear engineering from the Liverpool University in 1965. I got specialized training in nuclear reactor operation in Sweden for one year. We were supposed to build and operate the nuclear power plant at Rooppur. The Government of Pakistan made a solemn commitment to build the country’s first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. For this purpose, a site for the project was selected. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission performed several feasibility studies, invited bids and negotiated contracts with about half a dozen reactor vendors without ever signing a contract. In the mean time, the construction of the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) was started without any feasibility study and in violation of the commitment made earlier by the government. Several engineers, originally recruited for Rooppur, were transferred to KANUPP to build and operate the plant. The Government of Pakistan did not appear to be serious about Rooppur Nuclear Power Project even though significant progress was made in negotiations with a Belgian supplier during the late 60’s due mainly to the effort by

While negotiations were in progress with the Belgian supplier for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Project, the Commission decided to recruit engineers from both West Pakistan and East Pakistan (Bangladesh) to build and operate the plant. I disagreed with this decision and sent a note to the Chairman of PAEC suggesting that all the engineers for Rooppur must be recruited from Bangladesh only. I argued that the West Pakistani engineers, after receiving training in nuclear reactor operation, could refuse to work at Rooppur because of its rural surrounding and wet, hot and humid climate. I further argued that the recruitment of engineers from East Pakistan only would be a step forward to achieve parity in jobs between East and West Pakistan which was a constitutional obligation Dr. I. H. Usmani did not appreciate my political stance of achieving parity in jobs, but accepted my technical argument that the refusal by the West Pakistani engineers to work at Rooppur could create a serious man power problem for the Project. He then passed an order to recruit all the engineers for the Rooppur Project from East Pakistan only. Accordingly a large number of Bengali engineers were recruited for the Rooppur Project in 1968. They later received M.S. degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the Islamabad University and training at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) at Islamabad.

In 1969, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman paid a visit to Karachi to organize his party there. He was accompanied by about twenty top leaders of the Awami League including Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, A. H. M. Qumruzzaman, Capt. Mansur Ali, Dr. Kamal Hossain and my brother, Abdul Momin. Tajuddin Ahmed, my brother, Nurjahan Murshed and Arham Siddiqui stayed in my house as my guests for several days during their visit. I took them to different party meetings and brought them back to my house in my car, though I did not attend any political meeting with them as I was not allowed to do so being a government servant.

I was once waiting for my brother and his friends in the lounge of Hotel Jabees in Karachi where Bangabandhu had been addressing a meeting of his party. At the end of the meeting, Bangabandhu came out of the conference hall with other leaders and soon the lounge became jam-packed with people who had come to attend the meeting. They were all trying to have a close view of their leader. At one point, I noticed that Bangabandhu was slowly making his way through the crowd towards the corner where I was standing. He came close to me and said, “Matin, I shall come to visit your house.”

What an honour to have Bangabandhu as my guest in my house, I wondered! I promptly replied, “I shall be very glad if you come. Please tell me when you would be coming.” He said, “Momin will let you know.” He then moved away and started talking with other leaders and supporters of his party. When I was told about the scheduled visit of Bangabandhu to my house, I had very little time to make necessary arrangements and prepare food for the guests. I invited Prof. Abdul Matin Chowdhury, then Member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and later ViceChancellor of the University of Dhaka and some of my close friends and colleagues to my house to meet Bangabandhu. Bangabandhu and his entourage arrived at my house exactly at the scheduled time. The entourage consisted of all the top leaders of the Awami League who had accompanied Bangabandhu to Karachi. Almost all of them later became Ministers in Bangbandhu’s cabinet or later. They sat in all places in my house including my living room and the verandah.

Bangabandhu sat beside Prof. Chowdhury and was having a conversation with him. I was later told by Prof. Chowdhury that Bangabandhu treated him with extreme courtesy and addressed him as “Sir” during the conversation. Prof. Chowdhury was a teacher of the University of Dhaka where Bangabandhu once studied. During the conversation Prof. Chowdhury wanted to know from Bangabandhu what plans and programmes he had for the development of the country. Bangabandhu replied very promptly and said,” Sir, you are the people who would formulate the plans and programmes of the country. So, you should tell me what I should do.”

While my wife and I were busy serving food to our guests, I suddenly noticed that Bangabandhu was missing from the living room. Nobody could tell exactly where he was. I started looking for him all around my house and finally I discovered him in my bed room. I was surprised to see him giving company to my six-month-old daughter Usha and pushing her swing to and fro. When I came close to him, he said to me very apologetically, “I came in a hurry. I could not bring any gift for your daughter.” Then he handed over a note of one hundred rupees to me and said, “Please buy something for her with this money on my behalf.” My wife and I were deeply touched by the gesture of Bangabandhu. It

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showed his deep love and affection for children. No wonder his birthday is now celebrated every year in Bangladesh as the “National Children’s Day”.

When Bangabandhu was leaving, I came down to the street to say goodbye to him and his team. I was surprised to see hundreds of Bengali young men waiting outside my house to see their great leader. They all greeted him warmly when he was getting into his car. Our domestic help, a Bengali boy, must have had spread the news of Bangabandhu’s visit to the locality. Even today I relish the memory of Bangabandhu’s visit to my house with great pleasure and pride.

An interesting incident took place during Bangabandhu’s visit to Karachi. Pir Pagaro (the saint of Pagaro) invited Bangabandhu and his team to his house for dinner one evening. Pir Pagaro was a leader of a religion-based political party of Pakistan. On the same day Tajuddin Ahmed, who had been staying in my house, became sick. I was told that he would not go to the house Pir Pagaro. So I asked our cook to prepare some light Bengali dishes, namely alu bharta (mashed potatoes), pabda macher jhole (a typical Bengali fish curry) and dal (lentil soup) for him. When I had told Tajuddin Ahmed about this menu, his face suddenly lit

up and he immediately rushed from his bed room to the living room. He asked his other colleagues, “What do you want to eat tonight? If you want mutton biryani, roast chicken and kebab, you may go to the house of Pir Pagaro. If you prefer to eat alu bharta, pabda macher jhole and dal, you better stay home. Now the choice is yours.”

Some went to the house of Pir Pagaro and the others stayed back. I did not give much importance to this incident at that time. Years later, my brother told me that Nurjahan Murshed had narrated this story at a meeting of the Awami League while discussing the life of Tajuddin Ahmed. She explained that Tajuddin Ahmed was a firm believer in secular politics. He did not like to associate himself with any kind of religion based politics. So in order to avoid going to the house of Pir Pagaro, he became “politically sick” in my house on that day. It was difficult for him do anything against the dictates of his conscience.

When Bangabandhu and his team were departing from Karachi for Dhaka, my wife and I went to the airport to drop my brother and his friends who stayed at our house. We were standing in one corner of the lounge to avoid the huge crowd that had gathered at the airport. Bangabandhu noticed us from the other corner of the hall. He slowly walked all the way through the crowd to meet us. He fondly patted my daughter and my wife on their heads and exchanged pleasantries with us before taking leave from us. Bangabandhu was at the peak of his popularity at that time. Yet he was so polite and so humble in his manners and behaviour!

I also vividly remember the day of Bangabandhu’s arrival in Karachi. I was present at the airport when Bangabandhu arrived from Dhaka with other Awami League leaders. I was standing on the roof of the terminal building among several hundred people, mostly Bengalis, who went to the airport to greet Bangabandhu. We could easily see Bangabandhu, a towering figure, among all the passengers coming out of the plane and walking towards the terminal building. On the following day a large picture of Bangabandhu and his entourage walking towards the terminal building was printed on the front page of the Dawn, a prominent English daily newspaper of Pakistan published from Karachi. In the picture, Bangabandhu had his right hand raised with his index finger pointing towards the terminal building and my brother Abdul Momin was walking beside him. Looking at the picture, my brother told me that while he had been unable to locate me on the roof of the terminal building among a large crowd, Bangabandhu had spotted me exactly where I was standing. Raising his right hand towards me he was in fact telling my brother, “Look, Momin, Matin is standing there!” At that moment the picture was taken by the photographer of the newspaper.

I would like to mention an interesting but scary incident that occurred on the same day. When the entourage of Bangabandhu arrived at the bungalow where they were supposed to stay, it was discovered that all were present there except Bangabandhu! First, it was thought that perhaps he was late to arrive because of a traffic jam. When an hour or so had passed and still Bangabandhu did not show up, everyone got worried and began to make frantic telephone calls to all probable places to locate him. Unfortunately he could not be traced anywhere. Tajuddin Ahmed became really nervous and concerned about the safety of Bangabandhu. Nobody expressed it in words but the possibility of Bangabandhu being kidnapped from the airport was not ruled out. When the tension and anxiety had risen to their peaks among his colleagues, Bangabandhu arrived there with a West Pakistani friend who had taken him in his car from the airport to his house without the knowledge of any of his companions. The incident showed the weakness of the management of Bangabandhu’s trip to Karachi. Bangabandhu’s companions realized that they should not have allowed him to leave alone from the airport and they became more careful about his security in Karachi.

The Position of the Bengalis in Pakistan After the Independence of Bangladesh

We received the news of our victory in Bangladesh with mixed VV feelings of great joy and concerns for our personal  safety. The feeling of joy was overwhelming but we kept it deliberately subdued in the presence of our Pakistani colleagues, friends and neighbours. We did not want to hurt their feelings as they did not hurt ours during the war. There was a mutual respect among us for our widely differing political views. So we celebrated our victory among the Bengalis only in privacy, without being noticed by the Pakistanis. The victory was like a dream come true. Bangladesh became a free and independent country. The people of Bangladesh would decide their own fate without any interference from outside. All the displaced people including my brother, parents, sisters and other relations, either in India or inside Bangladesh, would now return home. Normalcy and peace would prevail throughout Bangladesh. This feeling of joy and satisfaction was accompanied by a concern for our personal safety and our future. We began to ask, “What would happen to us now?” We were completely cut off from Bangladesh and our relations living there. There was no direct communication between Bangladesh and Pakistan. Again we had to communicate with our relations in Bangladesh through Dr. Bazlur Rahman Khan, my cousin, in London, We knew that there would be no direct communication between Bangladesh and Pakistan unless all political issues between the two countries were resolved. It could take months, years or even decades. We did not know how the Government of Pakistan would treat us during our stay in Pakistan. Our future thus became very uncertain.

In addition, our lives became risky being surrounded by the people of Pakistan whose army suffered a disgraceful defeat in Bangladesh. We apprehended that riots could flare up against the Bengali community in Pakistan at any time, particularly when many wounded Pakistanis, both military and civilians, were returning to Pakistan from Bangladesh by ships. The civilians were mostly the Urdu speaking migrants from India who settled in the then East Pakistan after the partition of India and sided with the Pakistani forces during the war. Stories were spreading fast among the Pakistanis about some atrocities committed against them by the Bengalis. As a result, some Bengalis were reported to have been attacked in Karachi, Rawalpindi, and a few other places in Pakistan.

My position was particularly vulnerable for several reasons. My Pakistani colleagues in my office were aware that my brother Abdul Momin was a close associate of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Tajuddin Ahmed. I mentioned earlier that he had fled to India together with other Awami League leaders and had been one of the organizers of the war of independence. My neighbours in Karachi knew that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, together with other Awami League leaders visited my house during his trip to Karachi.

Fortunately for us, all of our close neighbours were extremely nice, helpful and sympathetic to us. No neighbour ever uttered a single word or made any comment, both during and after the war, to hurt our feelings. My wife Fariha used to attend regular weekly religious meetings of the housewives of the locality in a neighbour’s house, as I mentioned earlier. Our neighbour’s wife used to talk about Islam and together they prayed for peace and prosperity of all people, both Bengalis and non-Bengalis. Our neighbours used to assure us of all possible help and assistance during the difficult days. They even invited us to take shelter in their houses in case we felt insecure at any time. Their behaviour and treatment touched our hearts and we were indeed fortunate to have such friendly and cooperative neighbours.

Luckily there was a change of Government in Pakistan soon after the defeat of the Pakistani forces in Bangladesh. Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, whose Pakistan People’s Party had obtained the majority of the seats in the National Assembly from West Pakistan in the 1970 general election and who had opposed the transfer of power to Sheikh Mujib, replaced Yahya Khan as Pakistan’s President on December 20, 1971 and put the entire blame on Yahya Khan for the break-up of Pakistan. The people of Pakistan gradually came to know that injustices were done to and excesses were committed on the Bengalis by the military junta in Pakistan and consequently their forces suffered an ignominious defeat in Bangladesh.

General Yahya Khan who had once claimed that his forces were fighting a holy war in Bangladesh to save Pakistan and Islam was soon portrayed widely in the Pakistani media as a military dictator who indulged in wine and other vices forbidden by Islam. Under pressure from the international community, Bhutto released Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from the Pakistani custody. These factors helped to improve the position of the Bengalis in Pakistan to some extent and the possibility of an immediate riot between the Bengalis and the Pakistanis was diminished President Zuliqar Ali Bhutto, a shrewd politician, did not take any unilateral decision to release Bangabandhu. He thought that it would be wise to take the approval of the people of Pakistan before his release and he knew exactly how to get it. He addressed a huge public meeting in Karachi and told the huge crowd that India had been sending Hindu administrators to “East Pakistan” (Bangladesh was not recognized by Pakistan by that time) to rule their Muslim brethren. I was listening to his speech from my house in Karachi as it was being broadcast live by Radio Pakistan. Addressing the crowd he asked, “Do you want your Muslim brethren in East Pakistan to be ruled by the Indian Hindus?”

Naturally the crowd shouted, “No, no, no.” “Do you want them to be ruled by a Muslim ruler instead?” he asked his audience again. The response of the crowd was spontaneous. They shouted, “Yes, yes, yes.”

“If that is what you want, please give me your verdict on a very important matter.” he continued, “I do not want to take any decision on this issue on my own but I shall abide by whatever decision you take. If you want your Muslim brethren in East Pakistan to be ruled by a Muslim ruler, should I then send back Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to Dhaka to take over the administration there?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” the audience shouted back.

“Thank you, thank you and thank you.” he said to the crowd and continued, “I am relieved. You have solved a big problem for me. I shall abide by your decision.” Soon Bangabandhu was flown to London together with Dr. Kamal Hossain by a special flight of the Pakistan International Airlines, Bangabandhu had an audience with the British Prime Minister in London. He was provided with a special plane by the British Government for his onward journey to Dhaka. On his way he stopped in New Delhi where he was received with due honour as the

President of Bangladesh. In New Delhi he met with Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, and thanked her, the Government and the people of India for all the assistance Bangladesh received from them during the war of independence. Sheikh Mujib returned to Dhaka on January 10, 1972 and was accorded a tumultuous and historic welcome by the people of Bangladesh. On January 12, 1972 he took charge of the Government as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury was sworn in as the new President of Bangladesh.

After the take-over of the administration by the Bangladesh Government, normalcy gradually returned to Bangladesh. The Bengali refugees who took shelter in India returned to their country. The displaced Bengalis who took refuge in rural areas also came back to their homes. My brother and other relations returned from India. My parents were back to their home at Mohanganj after erecting a couple of tin sheds using the burnt and old tin sheets and bamboos as our original house was burnt down by the Pakistanis. The new Government of Bangladesh had a gigantic task to rebuild the physical infra-structures of the country like roads, bridges, culverts and industries destroyed during the war. In addition they had to rehabilitate millions of displaced people.

During the Pakistani rule, East Pakistan had a Provincial government with very limited powers of its own. Its defence, foreign policy, finance, foreign trade etc were controlled by the central government in Islamabad. The first task of the new Government of Bangladesh was to set up the administration of the new state. Most of its senior civil servants were then trapped in Pakistan. The new political leadership in Bangladesh lacked administrative experience because of the long years of military rule in Pakistan. Even under those difficult circumstances, the new administration first led by Tajuddin Ahmed and then by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did a remarkable job by rehabilitating the displaced people and rebuilding the physical infrastructures of the country. The government successfully disarmed the Mukti Bahini (the liberation army) and assimilated them in the regular armed forces in order to restore law and order in the country. On Bangabandhu’s request, Indira Gandhi withdrew all her armed forces from the soil of Bangladesh indicating that India had no territorial ambition in Bangladesh. The withdrawal of the Indian forces from Bangladesh soon after the accomplishment of their mission was indeed a triumph for Bangabandhu and a display of great statesmanship on the part of

Indira Gandhi. Many countries, in particular India and the Soviet Union, provided both material help and logistic support to Bangladesh in rebuilding the infrastructures. Soon the sea ports were cleared of mines and opened to traffic, the bridges were rebuilt, the communications were restored and the industries gradually started to roll.

Bangladesh adopted its first constitution, based on the British parliamentary system of democracy, in less than one year, and it came into effect on December 16, 1972, the first anniversary of the Victory Day. The first general election of independent Bangladesh was held on March 7, 1973. It was an outstanding achievement of Bangladesh and of Bangabandhu to adopt a new constitution and to hold a general election within such a short time soon after achieving independence through a bloody war. Needless to say that Bengali became the official language of Bangladesh. Bangabandhu refused to see any official paper unless it was presented to him in Bengali. In 1974, he delivered his address to the United Nations General Assembly in Bengali for the first time in its history. To show respect to the martyrs of the language movement of 1952, February 21 is now celebrated as the International Mother Language Day every year throughout the world in accordance with a resolution of UNESCO dated Novenber 17, 1999.

Following the change in the Government of Pakistan, there was a change in the administration of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) too. Dr. I. H. Usmani was replaced by Munir A. Khan of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as the Chairman of PAEC. It is believed that this changeover took place under the Chinese pressure. During the cold war era of the 60’s, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) used to fly to Beijing from Dhaka. PAEC used to attach some adhesive tapes on the external surface of the planes flying to Beijing and collect them on return. The radio-activity of the collected tapes was monitored regularly and the data were shared with the United States of America. Any sudden increase of radioactivity of the tapes could signify some new nuclear activity in the Chinese territory like an explosion of an atom bomb. Dr. Usmani was fired, perhaps as a scapegoat, when the Chinese came to know about this spying activity. At that time Pakistan was enjoying a good relationship with China and, in fact, was helping the United States of America to improve its relations with China. It was Yahya Khan who arranged the secret visit of Henry Kissinger to China in October 1970. Dr. Usmani could not be involved in any such activity

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against China on his own without the facit approval of the Government of Pakistan. Later he found a job with the UNDP. I want to add a few words here about Dr. I. H. Usmani. He had a Ph.D. in Physics from the Imperial College, London and he entered the elite Indian Civil Service through open competition in 1946, just before the partition of India. He was a very intelligent, smart and handsome person. His command in spoken and written English was superb. I had the pleasure of working directly under him for about four years. It was a unique experience and education for me to work so closely with him. He made us work very hard, often day and night, but he always appreciated our good work. He recruited many scientists and engineers from East Pakistan, purely on the basis of merit and did not discriminate against the Bengalis. In fact, he appointed Bengali scientists and engineers in many important positions even in West Pakistan. For example, he appointed Dr. Anwar Hussain, a brilliant nuclear physicist, the Director General of the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) in Islamabad and Mohammad Yusuf, an equally brilliant nuclear engineer, the Project Manager of the Karachi Nuclear Power Project (KANUPP). PINSTECH and KANUPP were the two most prestigious establishments of PAEC in Pakistan.

Dr. Usmani often went out of the way to help his subordinates. Three Bengali scientists namely Dr. Mosharraf Hussain, Dr. Khalilur Rahman and Dr. Faizur Rahman, came to Karachi from Dhaka to attend a conference just before the surrender of the Pakistani forces in Dhaka. They were stranded in Karachi and got separated from their families in Dhaka. Dr. Usmani took an exceptional step to send them back to Dhaka via Bangkok since there was no official relationship between Pakistan and Bangladesh at that time. When my brother was getting married in Dhaka in 1969, I met Dr Usmani and said, “Sir, I need to go to Dhaka to attend my brother’s wedding but I can’t afford the plane fare.” He immediately replied, “Why don’t you go on official duty? Write down something to justify your visit to Dhaka and bring it to me.” Soon he approved my visit and I attended my brother’s wedding in Dhaka while being on official duty with all expenses covered. Dr. Usmani and I once came to Dhaka from Karachi to attend a conference only a few days before an Eid festival. At the end of the conference he asked me, “Matin, are you coming to Karachi with me?” I replied, “Yes, sir.” He asked

again, “Where is your wife?” I told him that she was in Dhaka. He then retorted at me, “Why should you then come to Karachi with me? You better stay in Dhaka, celebrate Eid with your family and come back to Karachi after the Eid vacation.” These are only a few examples to show how kind, considerate and sympathetic he was to us. He also received me very cordially and warmly in his office at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 1980 when I had paid him a courtesy call.

With our allegiance to the Government of Bangladesh, it was becoming increasingly difficult for us to continue with our jobs in Pakistan. While we were still in service, the Government of Pakistan made up a secret plan to hold all the Bengali officers in Pakistan as hostages in order to get the release of the 93,000 Pakistani forces who had surrendered in Bangladesh and had been taken to India as prisoners of war. In our offices too, we were treated with mistrust by our former colleagues and soon we were dismissed from our jobs in 1972. We were, however, allowed to draw a small subsistence allowance from the government for our maintenance. Moreover, we were permitted to stay in our government quarters or in private houses hired by the government It may be mentioned here that the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission allowed the Bengali engineers and scientists to continue in their jobs much longer than the Bengali officials in other government departments. They did it not out of favour to us but out of necessity to them. Several Bengali engineers were holding key positions at the newly completed Karachi Nuclear Power Plant. S.M.A. Quadir, Deputy Plant Superintendent, Sultan Ahmed and Abdullahel Baqi, Shift Supervisors, M.A.Hamid and Nurul Islam, Principal Engineers were among them. They built the plant from scratch and brought it to operation together with their Pakistani counterparts. Their retrenchment at an earlier stage could seriously jeopardize the smooth and safe operation of the plant. They took time to train their own personnel keeping our engineers in service. They terminated our jobs only when they were sure that they could operate the plant on their own. When the plant was officially inaugurated with a lot of fanfare after our retrenchment, none of the Bengali engineers, including the former Project Manager and later Member (Engineering), was invited to attend the ceremony.

The subsistence allowance of Rs. 500/- per month (about US$ 50 at that time) which we received from the government was hardly enough to

maintain our family. Gradually we changed our lifestyle and began to live very modestly. We reduced our intake of meat and other expensive food items. We could no longer afford to keep any domestic servant. We drastically reduced our entertainment costs. To subsidize our costs of living, we began to sell many of our possessions like cars, refrigerators, other household appliances, furniture, crockery etc. We travelled by bus or on foot. We hired taxis very sparingly. With morning and afternoon tea, we ate cheap toast biscuits instead of any fancy items. One day, my daughter Usha came to me and said, “Abbu (Dad), the toast biscuits are not tasty. I don’t like them. Could I have some chocolate biscuits?” I went to a nearby bakery and bought a small packet of chocolate biscuits for her. I cannot describe her joy and happiness when she saw the packet in my hand. Needless to say that she finished the whole packet, all by herself, in no time!

As things settled down in Pakistan, we realized that we could no longer live in Pakistan like aliens while our services were badly needed in our own country, Bangladesh. I must mention at this point that it was my wife Fariha who first proposed to me to flee from Pakistan and return to Bangladesh. I explained to her all the pros and cons of this proposition but she was firm and adamant in her decision. Her support acted as a catalyst to make our final decision. Soon we began to hold secret meetings of the Bengali communities in Karachi to explore the ways and means to flee from Pakistan. The spirit of patriotism was very high among the Bengalis in Pakistan. We were inspired to work hard and to lead a very modest life sacrificing all comforts after our return to Bangladesh. We decided that, if necessary, we would wear local handwoven coarse cotton clothes (khadi), canvas shoes and walk to offices with umbrellas in hands. We were indeed motivated to work sincerely and honestly for the development of our country and the welfare of its people. With this dream in heart and determination in mind, we began to plan for our escape from Pakistan.

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The Plan of Escape

 

The thought of escaping from Pakistan was always in our minds ever

since the war started in Bangladesh. It was not possible on our part to fly to Bangladesh without any official document during the war. I first tried to go to Bangladesh on leave from my office but my application for leave was turned down by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. During the war many Bengalis, mainly bachelors or married people living away from their families, left Pakistan on foot through the desert of Sind. Some of them were Bengali army officers or soldiers who deserted the Pakistan army and joined the Mukti Bahini in Bangladesh. It was a tiring and very risky journey. It is unfortunate that some of them were killed by snake bites or died due to exhaustion and dehydration during their journey through the desert.

After Bangladesh became independent, the Afghan Government was very kind and generous to allow the Bengalis from Pakistan to enter into Afghanistan and then to fly to India on way to Bangladesh. Two routes were then open to us. One was through the historic Khyber Pass in the North West Frontier Province and the other one was through the Chaman border in Baluchistan. The Khyber Pass was closer to Islamabad and Rawalpindi and many Bengalis living in and around that region preferred to take this route. Our Bengali colleagues working at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) in Islamabad followed this route. For those of us residing in Karachi, the Chaman border in Baluchistan was more accessible.

The whole journey from Karachi to Dhaka through Afghanistan and India required very elaborate and careful planning. First of all, the planning had to be done in complete secrecy so that nobody hostile to us could know about it. Secondly, we had to find a very reliable agent who would be able to sneak us out across the border safely. Thirdly, we had to prepare ourselves mentally and physically to face any eventuality during the odd journey through a totally unfamiliar terrain. Fourthly, we had to form a group with like minded people to plan and undertake the journey jointly.

We started the process by consulting our Bengali colleagues in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. There were two distinct groups among us in Karachi. One group worked at the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) as I mentioned earlier. They lived in government quarters away from the main city and inside a security zone under strict surveillance. It was very difficult for them to come out of the security zone to join our entourage. So we had to exclude them from our group. They were, however, fully aware of our plan and, in fact, were engaged in making their own plan for escape. They too sold their personal cars and domestic appliances. Since they lived at a remote place away from the city, the five of them together bought a car belonging to one of them for their common use and named it Draupadi.

The name Draupadi has a historic significance. According to the epic Mahabharata, Draupadi was the daughter of King Drupada of Panchala. He wanted to get his daughter married to Arjuna, one of the five brothers known as the five Pandavas who were then living in exile. King Drupada arranged a swayamvara. It is an old system in which a princess could select her own consort from a number of eligible princes from the neighbouring states who were normally invited to a social event in a royal court for this purpose. In this case the princes competing for the hand of Draupadi were asked to shoot five arrows at a revolving target while looking at its reflection in a bowl. King Drupada knew that only Arjuna was capable of doing so and he was right. Arjuna alone hit the target and thus won the hand of Draupadi. His other brothers were also present at the swayamvara but in disguise. The five brothers returned home with Draupadi and told their mother Kunti that they had brought “alms” referring to Draupadi. Without looking at what they had brought, Kunti advised her five sons to share it equally among them as was the usual practice. So the five brothers, in reverence to their mother’s wish, married Draupadi who became their common wife. This explains why my five friends named their common car Draupadi!

All of my colleagues from KANUPP were repatriated to Bangladesh in 1974 under official sponsorship. S.M.A. Quadir, Sultan Ahmed and A. Baqi later immigrated to Canada and took part as experts in the construction of several Canadian nuclear power plants in Argentina, South Korea and Romania. It is a matter of pride for us that our nuclear engineers built nuclear power plants abroad and a matter of shame that they did not get a chance to build one in their own country. M.A. Hamid became a

Director of the Bangladesh Chemical & Fertilizer Corporation and Nurul Islam joined the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna as a Safeguards Inspector.

The other group worked mainly at the headquarters of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission like me and lived in Karachi city in private houses hired by the government. I contacted my close friend and colleague, M.A. Quaiyum. He agreed to flee with us and said, “I shall take whatever decision you take” and indeed he kept his words. Later I contacted Dr. M. A. Mannan, a former Secretary of the Pakistan Science Council and later an Executive Director of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Gazipur. He was a younger brother of Reazuddin Ahmed, my second brother-in-law. He agreed to accompany us with his family. We thus formed a group of three families.

While we formed this group, we were always in contact with Mohammad Yusuf, a former Member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and later a Secretary to the Government of Bangladesh and Md. Anisur Rahman, formerly a Director of the Nuclear Power Division of PAEC and later a Member of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. They wanted to observe how we made the journey before taking the decision to escape. They all came to Bangladesh later under the official repatriation programme. Unfortunately, M. Yusuf, Md. Anisur Rahman, Sultan Ahmed and M.A. Hamid are no more with us.

Another colleague, Dr. Shamsuz-Zaman Mozumder, whose mother and elder brother were killed by the Urdu speaking settlers in Bangladesh during the war, made his own arrangement to flee from Pakistan. He later became a Secretary to the Government of Bangladesh. Two of our Bengali colleagues, Dr. M. N. Alam, Chief Scientific Officer and Dr. R. A. Khan, Principal Medical Officer, opted for services in Pakistan and stayed back in Karachi. Dr. Alam and his wife returned to Bangladesh after retirement. Dr. Alam expired very recently in Dhaka.

Not surprisingly, Prof. Syed Ali Ashraf of Karachi University, an ardent supporter of Pakistan, opted for services in Pakistan even though he was Bengali by birth. He was convinced that as a Pakistani citizen he would enjoy all the rights and privileges like any other Pakistani citizen.

One day, he told me that he had become a candidate for election to the post of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Karachi University. I was surprised by his candidature and asked him, “Who would vote for

you?”

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“I am a Pakistani citizen like my other colleagues. I happen to be the senior most professor in the Faculty. Why shouldn’t they vote for me?” he replied.

Unconvinced, I asked, “Will they?” He appeared very confident. He got the shock of his life when the results of the election were published. He got only one vote, his own. None of his Pakistani colleagues voted for him even though he was the most competent and deserving candidate by any standard. His only fault was that he had been born in Bangladesh. His dream of Pakistan was thus shattered. Disappointed and frustrated, he left Pakistan and moved to Cambridge, England, with his wife. He later joined King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as a Professor of English. Finally he returned to Bangladesh and established the Darul Ihsan University at Dhaka. Dr. Ashraf and his wife died several years ago in Dhaka. Like Prof. Ashraf, most of the Bengalis who had originally opted for services in Pakistan ultimately came back to Bangladesh or settled abroad. They too were not treated equally like other Urdu speaking Pakistanis. Some were discriminated in jobs. Some failed to renew their Pakistani passports while working abroad. They were a little late to realize why the Bengalis had to fight a war to free themselves from the Pakistani subjugation in 1971.

The tribal people who live along the Durand Line i.e., the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan have traditionally maintained their freedom of movement across the border without any restrictions or any travel documents. They have their own system of self-rule, own courts called “jirgas” and own arms and ammunition factories. All the male members of the tribal people, young or old, always carry their guns with them. They are used to fighting with each other frequently and often with the law-enforcing agencies of the bordering countries. Smuggling of goods including drugs across the border was one of their sources of income. After the liberation of Bangladesh, trafficking of the stranded Bengalis in Pakistan across the border became a lucrative business for them. Many Pathans (the people of North West Frontier Province) and the Baluchis (those of Baluchistan) thus got involved in this business. It was, however, very difficult for the Bengalis to contact the traffickers directly. So they had to go through some agents and one of them was Mr. X of Quetta, an advocate by profession, who was a leader of the local

Awami League during the late 60’s. I do not want to embarrass him by stating his real name because we are really grateful to him for his assistance. He earned a reputation for being a reliable agent who helped many Bengalis, including some very senior government servants, to flee to Afghanistan. We started looking for him.

The problem was how to find Mr. X? We did not know what he looked like. He did not have any office or fixed address in Karachi. When in Karachi, he did not stay at one place for more than a couple of days for reasons of his security. Taking advantage of his reputation and obscurity, several Pathans and Baluchis, posing as Mr. X, collected money from the Bengalis in Karachi with the promise of transporting them across the border but only to disappear forever. Many innocent Bengalis were deceived in this manner. To find the real Mr. X, we took help from one of my wife’s close relations, M. Amjad Ali, who had served for long in the intelligence branch of the Pakistani police force in a senior position. After retirement, he was living in Karachi at that time. He was a regular visitor to our house. We used to call him Mamujan (an uncle close to the heart). He was a very charming and caring person. He spent his life as a bachelor and was always eager to help people in need. He was very fond of us as we were of him. Mamujan used his professionalism and expertise to locate Mr. X and met him at a house in Karachi. He invited Mr.X to meet us at our house.

M.A. Quaiyum, Dr. Mannan and I met Mr. X in the presence of Mamujan at our house one morning and discussed the whole plan in detail. For a particular fee per person, Mr. X offered to collect us by cars from our houses and drive all the way from Karachi to Kandahar in Afghanistan via Quetta in Baluchistan covering a distance of about 500 miles (800 km) in 2 days. We accepted his plan and paid him the fees. He said that it would take about four weeks to make the arrangements and we would know the exact date and time of our departure only two days before our actual journey.

Preparations for Departure

 

Once the plan was made, it was time for making the detailed preparations for our departure. I mentioned earlier that we sold most of our valuable possessions like our car, household appliances, furniture, crockery etc. We also withdrew all our money from our bank accounts in case they were frozen by the government. We kept the cash money in secret locations inside our house.

To keep us physically fit during our journey, we started to walk long distances every day. We visited friends on foot, did shopping on foot or just walked on the streets for hours. We stopped drinking boiled water and started to eat from ordinary street-side restaurants, overlooking their unhygienic conditions, in order to strengthen our immune systems.

For reasons of our security, it was important that no outsider should notice or even guess that we had left the house until we crossed the border with Afghanistan. For this reason we decided to discontinue with all our home delivery systems. We stopped delivery of newspapers to our house so that there was no pile up of papers in front of our main door after our departure.

We had a Sindhi milkman who delivered pure and fresh milk to our house daily. We had a problem in stopping his supply of milk. One day after taking delivery of the milk from him I paid him all his dues and said politely to him, “Thank you for supplying milk to me for all these years. We don’t need milk any more. So please stop supplying milk to us from tomorrow.”

Suddenly his mood changed. He looked straight at my eyes with suspicion and anger. Then he said, “I know what you mean.”

This made me nervous. I thought that he must have perceived our secret plan. I was wondering what would have happened to us if he disclosed it to others! To my great relief he added, “You must have arranged with another milkman for the supply of milk. What is wrong with my milk?”

I said to him, “No, that’s not true. There is no reason for us to buy milk from another milkman since your milk is so good and pure. Did we ever complain about your milk?”

“Then why do you want me to stop supplying milk to you?” he demanded to know

I could not tell him the truth. I said,” My daughter now prefers to drink powder milk. So I don’t need your milk.”

He shook his head in disbelief and said, “Now the matter is clear to me.”

This time he made me almost shaky. “You are Bengalis,” he continued, “you have no jobs, no money and so you can’t afford to buy milk. I do not sell milk for money only. Your daughter must drink milk. From tomorrow I shall supply milk to you free of cost.”

What could I tell him? I thanked him profusely for his kind offer. With great difficulty I was able to persuade him to stop the supply of milk from the following day. This Sindhi milkman came from a completely rural background. He had no formal education. He was not rich by any standard, yet he was rich with human qualities and values. Sir Winston Churchill counselled for ‘magnanimity’ in ‘victory’ and ‘defiance’ in defeat’ in his six-volume history of the Second World War. He did not read Churchill. He hardly knew who Churchill was. He was magnanimous in defeat! His kindness touched me so much that I must have told this story to my friends and admirers at least one hundred times. I become emotional every time I tell this story. This is a rare example of humanity in its best form. He knew that I was from Bangladesh; the Bengalis fought a bitter war against their army and forced them to surrender but yet he offered free supply of milk to a Bengali family. Why?

First of all, ordinary people like him who worked hard to earn their livelihood in the fields, farms or factories had no conflict with other ordinary people whether they were Bengalis, Pathans, or Sindhis. All of them suffered, more or less equally, at the hands of the ruling military dictators and naturally they were sympathetic to each other.

Secondly, Sind as a province of Pakistan was neglected economically almost equally like Bangladesh. Sind was a province in British India with Karachi as its capital. After partition of India in 1947, Karachi became the capital of Pakistan and there was a huge influx of people, mainly the government officials and employees. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of Indian Muslim migrants, popularly known as “refugees or mohajirs”, settled in Karachi because of its importance as the capital, a port city and a major business centre. To make room for them the Sindhis, the original native population, had to vacate Karachi and move to the rural areas. Even the Sindhi schools were closed down, only to be converted into Urdu schools. Their houses were requisitioned by the government at nominal rents and turned into government offices or residential quarters.

The Ghulam Muhammad Barrage was built in 1955 near Hyderabad in Sind across the river Indus to supply irrigation water to a vast barren area but the irrigated land was not distributed among the landless Sindhis as was originally planned but was given to the army personnel, mainly from the Punjab. The Karachi University hardly had any Sindhi students or Sindhi faculty members. As a result, the poor Sindhis remained poor, like the Bengalis in Bangladesh, even after the partition of India. During the war in Bangladesh, the Sindhis were found to be sympathetic to the Bengalis. For similar reasons, many Pathans and Baluchis showed sympathies towards the Bengalis during and after the war.

Here I would like to narrate another incident relating to a former Pathan colleague, Mr. Y, at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Although we used to discuss freely but privately among our Bengali colleagues about the war in Bangladesh, we had to be very careful with our conversations with the Pakistani colleagues. Normally we avoided such discussions because of our wide differences of opinions. Mr. Y was different from his other Pakistani colleagues. He was very critical of the military dictators and was friendly to the Bengalis. One day in March 1971, when we were alone in our office, he said to me in a low voice, “Last night while tuning my radio, I was able to listen to Sheikh Mujib’s speech of March 7. It was so impressive and inspiring that my blood began to boil even though I did not understand a word of it.” It shows how sympathetic he was to us. We lost contact with him after we had been laid off from our jobs. We understood that perhaps there were some official instructions on them to distance themselves from us.

One day I was very surprised to see him knock at the main door of my house. I never expected this to happen. He came in and after we had sat down he said to me,” I am very sorry I could not come to see you earlier. Now I am free to come to your house. I resigned from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission yesterday.” It was so nice of him to come and see me. He asked about our welfare and wanted to know if he could be of any help to us. I thanked him for his visit and offer of help. We discussed about his future plans. He told me that he had resigned from his job to work fulltime for his family business. We had some tea together and then he left

I described the stories of the Sindhi milkman and my former Pathan colleague just to emphasize that the ordinary people of Pakistan were not in general hostile to the Bengalis. In fact, many of them were very friendly and sympathetic to the Bengalis even though they did not support the separation of Bangladesh.

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A Bombshell to Our Plan

With all preparations ready, we were waiting for instructions VV regarding our departure from Mr. X, our agent. The instructions did not come. Instead, we received some very disturbing news. The government made some changes in the administrations of Baluchistan and the North West Frontier Province. Both the provinces were previously being governed by civilian Governors who had been friendly to the Bengalis. They allowed them to cross the border almost freely through the regular check-posts. They were replaced by military Governors who imposed strict restrictions on the trafficking of the Bengalis. For reasons of safety perhaps, Mr. X immediately went into hiding after the administrative changeover and nobody could trace him anywhere. This news came as a bombshell to our plan. We thought that all our elaborate planning, effort and money had gone down the drain. We gave up all hopes of returning to Bangladesh.

In the mean time, rumours were spreading among the Bengali community in Pakistan that the Government of Pakistan was preparing concentration camps to hold the Bengalis as hostages for the exchange of the 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war held in India. In Bangladesh, on the other hand, the demand for the trial of the Pakistani war criminals who had committed serious crimes like murder, arson, rape etc. was gaining ground and rightly so. We were, therefore, getting mentally prepared to be taken to the concentration camps at any time.

As things got settled down in Baluchistan and the North West Frontier Province, the trafficking of the Bengalis across the border resumed again, though not through regular border posts but through unpopulated hilly terrain. They were required to cross the borders on foot or on the back of donkeys and often by climbing mountains. The journey through populated areas was often made in trucks, designed to hide human beings inside some specially built compartments camouflaged by the normal merchandise put on top of them. The truck was covered with tarpaulin and from outside it looked like a normal truck transporting goods. Obviously,

there was poor ventilation inside the compartment, the atmosphere being hot, humid and suffocating. This journey was uncomfortable and more strenuous. Robbery by local bandits was common. Many Bengalis, mostly young bachelors, undertook this arduous trip in despair. Many suffered from exhaustion and dehydration during the marathon adventure.

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The Revised Plan

We prayed and waited hoping against hope that one day Mr. X

would show up with some new proposals or at least to refund the money which we had paid to him in advance. We again took help from Mamujan who was constantly searching for new ways to send us home.

Finally our prayers were answered. Mamujan was able to contact Mr. X who came to our house one day and informed us about the situation around the border areas. He said that under the changed circumstances it was no longer possible for him to carry out the original plan and he was willing to refund our money, if we so wanted. Alternatively, he suggested that he could still help us to cross the border provided we agreed to the following conditions:

1. Travel by a jeep instead of a car, ii. Cross the border over a small mountain on foot and iii. Pay some extra money to meet the increased costs.

We discussed the new proposal among us and agreed to his conditions. It was further agreed that he would carry five pieces of luggage per family which he would deliver to our hotel in Kandahar. We would carry only small hand luggage with us. He said he would give further detailed instructions about our journey at a later stage. We would know the date of our departure again only two days before our journey.

As we were waiting for the final call from Mr. X for our departure, a small but very touching incident happened. M. Yusuf, my senior colleague about whom I mentioned before, sent his eldest daughter, Farida, to stay with us so that she could appear at her school final examination from my house. Her school was a little far from their house but very close to ours and she could walk to her school from our house. I mentioned earlier that most of us sold our cars by then and we travelled either on public transports or on foot. We were very happy to have Farida at our house and she was enjoying her stay as well even though she was busy with her studies most of the time.

When she was half-way through her examination, the call for our departure came from Mr. X. She did not know that we were about to flee from Karachi shortly and we could not tell this to her for reasons of secrecy. So I had to tell this to her father even though it was not our policy to tell the exact date of our departure to any one. M. Yusuf came to our house and asked Farida to pack up. It came as a big shock to her. She knew that she would complete her examination from our house and so she insisted on staying with us till her exam was over. When she was told by her father that she could not stay with us any more, she started to cry. She perhaps thought that she must have done something seriously wrong and we wanted her to leave. Farida was a charming girl and we liked her very much. Our hearts bled to see her misery but again we could not explain the reasons to her. Finally she left our house with tears in her eyes. We said goodbye to her with tears in ours.

Soon we got detailed instructions from Mr. X about our departure. He advised us to gather on the night of April 5, 1973 at the house of Dr. Mannan who lived in a bungalow in a secluded location in the city. We were due to depart very early in the morning on the following day. As planned, the jeep would arrive at 5 am and we would be required to board the jeep in 15 minutes in complete silence so that we could be out of Karachi city by 6.30 am. They told us that the timing was very important for our safety. It was explained to us later that the change of shift of duty of the police took place in the morning at 6 am. Around that time they would be busy in taking over and handing over charges and normally would refrain from carrying out any routine operations like search or arrest. Criminals (including us!) normally made good use of this “golden hour” to their advantage!

The Journey from Karachi to Quetta

on April 5, Mamujan came to our house in the evening to see us off

U and we had an early dinner together. We put our cash money in different pockets in small portions, some with me and some with my wife Fariha. She kept all her gold ornaments inside her undergarments even though it was uncomfortable to do so. We put on light clothes and took some warm clothes in our hand luggage. We knew that it would be cold on the top of the mountains and also in Kabul. We were also carrying some dry food and water. Before departure I said my usual prayers and held Usha close to my heart and prayed again, “Oh Allah, we are making this journey in your name with our little daughter who is so innocent. Please protect us from all hazards and help us to reach our destination safely. Amin.” For us, it was a journey into a totally uncharted territory. None could predict what would happen to us! We could be caught by the police, or worse, be robbed by bandits or be abandoned by our escorts whom we trusted to sneak us out!

It is very difficult to describe our feelings at the start of our journey. On the one hand there was the prospect of escaping from our captivity in Pakistan and returning to the freedom in Bangladesh, the country of our dreams. On the other hand there were risks of unknown proportions if we were caught by the police or robbed by the tribal bandits. I could take the risks for my life; my wife could do the same for hers. Our dilemma was for our little daughter Usha. Who would take the risks for her? Could we ever forgive ourselves if, God forbids, anything happened to her because of any of our wrong decisions? We thought about it day and night. Sometimes we had nightmares. Often we woke up in the middle of the night and stayed awake till morning thinking about all the possibilities and probabilities that could happen during our journey. If we did not escape, we could end up in the concentration camps; nobody knew for how long! Often we shivered thinking about the victims in the dreadful Nazi concentration camps in Europe during the Second World War! Could this happen to us too?

As Muslims, we firmly believe in the existence of Allah and this helps us to take difficult decisions. We consider all the pros and cons before taking a decision and then leave everything to Allah for the outcome. As a result we always find hopes in despair. Under the circumstances we thought that our decision to flee from Pakistan was our best option. We planned it and tried to execute it in the best possible manner we could. The rest we left to the will of Allah, over which we had no control.

Even though we had no regret to leave Pakistan, we were sorry to leave our house in Karachi where we lived for five long years. We had a wonderful landlord, a retired government servant and a perfect gentleman in the true sense of the term. He was tall and he used to wear the traditional Muslim dress. He was a pious man and with his long coat, white beard and cap, he looked like a saint. He was always very cooperative to meet my requests for repairs or modifications in the house to make our stay more comfortable. He used to visit me regularly and we spent hours talking to each other. Unfortunately, I could not handover the house to him before our departure for reasons of secrecy. We were also sorry to leave our neighbours who, as I mentioned earlier, had been so nice to us all along. We had to depart without taking leave from them.

It was soon time for us to leave. Dr. Mannan’s house was about a mile from our house. As planned, we did not intend to get into a taxi in front of our house to avoid the attention of our neighbours. We left the house quietly at about 9 pm, with the night lights on and all curtains drawn to cover the windows of our house, and slowly walked to the main street. Mamujan was supposed to say goodbye to us on the main sreet. We called a taxi and told him where to go. As we said goodbye to Mamujan and were about to get into the taxi, Mamujan broke into tears and started to wail loudly like a child. He was saying, “I feel like the ground under my feet is moving away. How shall I live here alone without you?” I thought that if we stayed longer on the roadside keeping the taxi waiting and Mamujan wailing, the people around us would get suspicious and we could be in trouble. Without uttering a single word, I pushed Mamujan into the taxi and we all started to move.

We arrived in Dr. Mannan’s house by about 9.30 pm and were allowed to get in quietly. A. Quaiyum arrived later with his family. He had a large family. He had several guests at his house when Bangladesh

became independent and all of them were stranded in Karachi. In addition to his wife and three children, he had his nephew, his wife’s brother and a grandmother travelling with him. Dr. Mannan had his wife and five children. All together we were eighteen members from three families, nine of whom were children. We persuaded Mamujan to leave by 11 pm. He was in tears when he left us. He spent most of his time with us when we were in Karachi and shared with us all of our moments of joy and sorrow. It was very difficult for us to say goodbye to him.

We requested Mamujan several times to accompany us on this journey but he always refused. While serving in the Police Department, he bought an apartment in Karachi with the intention of settling down there after retirement. When he got possession of the apartment, Bangladesh had already become independent. So he had to change his plan for retirement. Luckily he was able to sell his apartment to an Urdu speaking Indian Muslim who originally settled in Dhaka but later moved to Karachi. After retirement, Mamujan once became seriously ill and had to be hospitalized. He had diabetes and other age related illnesses. He refused to flee with us perhaps because of his old age and ailments. Later, he was repatriated to Bangladesh together with other stranded Bengalis in Pakistan and settled in Khulna. Unfortunately he died in 1978 while travelling alone by train from Rangpur to Khulna to see his ailing aunt who also expired three days later.

A few other Bengali families joined us at Dr. Mannan’s house. We did not know them before. They made arrangements with Mr. X separately like we did. We were supposed to travel together but in separate jeeps. We spent the night under great tension practically without sleep, sometimes sitting, sometimes lying on the floor and sometimes just walking around the room. We had a simple breakfast very late at

night.

Exactly at 5 am, three jeeps arrived and entered into the compound of the house. We all got into our designated jeeps. Our jeep became really crowded with three families inside as none of the families were willing to split and travel in separate jeeps. The jeep was so crowded that some had to sit on the floor with their children on their laps. Some were even standing finding no room to sit. We began our journey at our scheduled time.

We had a smooth start without any hitch. It was still dark when our convoy of three jeeps left Dr. Mannan’s house. The neighbourhood was

calm. The people were sleeping. Our driver was moving very cautiouslyconstantly and minutely observing the surroundings. He was also watching the positions of the other two jeeps and a third vehicle, a car. We found out later that it was an escort car belonging to our traffickers. It had three additional drivers and our chief escort whom the drivers addressed as “Commissioner.” Actually this car was monitoring and controlling our movements all along our journey. They did not have any cell phones then, yet they had their own system of communications using sign languages. We were advised not to talk among ourselves or with the driver during the journey, unless it was absolutely essential.

By the time the sky became clear, we already crossed the city boundary. At one point all the three jeeps including the pilot car stopped at a secluded spot. The three jeeps were parked, one behind another, with their hoods open. One driver pretended fixing something with a screwdriver on the engine of the jeep in front. Two other drivers were then busy in changing the number plates of the jeep in the middle. When this was done another jeep was placed in the middle and its number plates were also changed. When the number plates of all three jeeps were changed, we started our journey again but with a different set of drivers and a different set of number plates, of course! The operation was carried out very swiftly and professionally.

We later realized that it was a routine operation which the drivers repeated several times, mainly before crossing a new police check-post or if they had reasons to believe that they had become suspects. They opened the hood of the jeep in front to give an impression that someone was fixing something in the engine while others were busy in changing the number plates. The two jeeps, one in front and one at the rear, provided cover to the whole operation. Even if there were any reports by any police petrol car, it would obviously be difficult to detect the suspected jeep with a new set of number plates and a new driver with a different dress and appearance!

Our convoy passed by Hyderabad and was continuing towards the north to Sukkur, a major city in Sind, halfway to Quetta in Baluchistan. We were driving mainly along the highway but often taking detours through rough country terrain to avoid police check-posts. We were travelling over a region which was once a part of the ancient Indus civilization during 3000-1500 BCE. The excavated town of Mohenjo

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Daro in Sind, famous for its great bath, uniform buildings, and covered drainage system was not too far from our route. I recalled my visit to Mohenjo Daro and other places of interest in Pakistan after attending the First National Scout Jamboree of Pakistan in 1953. I was then a student of Grade IX and was accompanied by my cousin Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan and my friend and nephew Syed Ahmed. Syed Ahmed was a brilliant student and later became a Cabinet Secretary of the Government of Bangladesh. Even though the Indus Valley had once been one of the few great ancient civilizations, the province of Sind in Pakistan was a complete contrast to its glorious past. Its people remained poor and impoverished due to the negligence of the Government of Pakistan as I had mentioned earlier.

Around noon, we noticed that our jeep was getting hot. The driver reported that a leak had developed in the radiator of the engine. It was very risky to get it repaired on our way. If we stopped our vehicle at any work-shop in a built-up area for repair, we could be identified as Bengalis on the run from Pakistan. For this reason, we were not allowed to come out of our vehicles during our journey. The driver, therefore, continued to drive the jeep with the leaking radiator taking care to replace the lost coolant regularly by filling it with water. This slowed down our average speed considerably.

It was past noon when we passed the suburbs of Sukkur. We ate some dry food and drank water. The atmosphere inside the jeep had been very tense from the moment we got into it. Most of us were reciting different “doa and dorud” (typical Islamic prayers) all along our journey seeking the mercy of Allah for our safe journey. We were always afraid of being caught by the police. Even the children realized the gravity of the situation and remained quiet. They did not cry or make any noise of any kind. Surprisingly and fortunately for us, none among us even had the urge to go to the washroom during the entire journey. Our physiology perhaps responded to the need of the situation. A few of us developed travel sickness and they were prepared for it with sufficient plastic bags. They drank plenty of water to prevent dehydration. As a result we ran short of drinking water. Collecting drinking water was difficult and risky as we could not stop in built-up areas for reasons of our safety. Finally we drove into a village to collect water.

We soon had another bad news. A second jeep developed engine trouble. The drivers tried their best but failed to start the engine. The drivers decided to tow it but they had no rope. We gave them some sarees to be used as ropes. Somehow we were able to pull it close to a workshop and we left it there for repair. The passengers of this jeep were shifted to the other two jeeps at a secluded place even though they were packed to their capacities. We had no other alternative. The driver of the troubled jeep was instructed to join us in Quetta.

We continued our journey slowly but steadily. The sun set and it soon became dark. The sky was clear and we could see the stars shining very brightly. Normally we do not see such a beautiful sky from the illuminated urban areas. Occasionally we took light refreshments and water, always inside the jeep. At around midnight we were alerted by the driver that soon we would cross a police check-post. We were tutored by our driver to tell the police, if asked by them, that we were officers in the Customs Department and that we were travelling on transfer to join our new posts. We covered ourselves by wrappers and pretended to be sleepy. We decided that Dr. Mannan would reply at the check post as he spoke Urdu better than the rest of us. I may mention here that my knowledge of Urdu was the worst among us as I never tried to speak in Urdu in my office. The reason was simple. My Pakistani colleagues always expected that we would speak to them in Urdu while they knew nothing of Bengali. I insisted that I would speak in Urdu only if they spoke my language, Bengali. They had no intention to learn Bengali. As a result I did not make any attempt to learn Urdu.

When we arrived at the check-post, a security guard came close to our vehicle with a lantern in his hand and looked inside. When asked about our identity, Dr. Mannan cleverly uttered only one word, “Customs”. The guard understood that we were from the Customs Department and allowed us to pass. Dr. Mannan did not say much because from his accents, no matter how good his Urdu was, the guard could easily identify him as a Bengali

It was past midnight, may be 2 or 3 am, when we had the worst experience during our journey or in our lives. We were passing through a country track, around the Sibi region, not very far from Quetta. Suddenly two powerful torch lights lit up in front of our convoy and were focused toward us. As we came close, we could see several people, all with arms, standing there and blocking our way. First we thought that they belonged to the police forces. Later we realized that they were tribal bandits. They forced us to halt. As we stopped, one of the bandits suddenly opened the door of my jeep and dragged me out at gun point. Another bandit snatched a handbag from my wife who was sitting behind me. I thought that they would shoot me in no time and I started to say my prayers which I thought would be my last. Luckily for me, our escort car arrived immediately at the spot, 2 or 3 people came out of the car and rushed to the bandit who was holding me. They got me released by force in no time, shouting loudly at the bandits, “Don’t you dare touch our guests. Talk to us if you want anything.”

I returned to my jeep thanking Allah for saving my life. The bandits were still standing there blocking our way and taking positions to shoot at us.

One of our escorts asked them, “How many guns do you have?”

They replied shouting a number that I don’t remember. Our escort said, “We too have the same number of guns. If you want to fight, we are ready. If you want to talk, we will talk. What is your choice?” The reply came, “We will talk”

“Hold your guns down then.” our escort shouted back and they obliged.

There was a long and hot argument among them. Our escorts settled the matter perhaps paying some ransom to the bandits. Suddenly the bandits started to behave very nicely with us. They addressed us as brothers and sisters and assured us that they would escort us all the way up to Quetta if we wanted them to do so. They even returned my wife’s hand bag but without the cash money which my wife was carrying in her bag. They swore that they did not steal any money from the bag. We did not argue much about the money. Personally, I was happy to be released unhurt. We lost about Rs.700/- (US$ 70.00). All other items including some pieces of gold jewellery hidden in a handkerchief were intact in her bag. Most probably the bandits did not notice the jewellery. They escorted us along the country tracks for some time and then took leave from us. Before leaving they warmly shook hands with us. Dr. Mannan later discovered that his wrist watch had been stolen during his hand shakes with the bandits. One of them must have played a trick on him!

We approached Quetta, our first scheduled stop, very early in the morning. We were told by our driver that we might have to spend a couple of days in Quetta to get the jeeps repaired. Moreover, we could not leave unless the third jeep which we had left for repair near Sukkur joined us in Quetta. We were further told that all the male members travelling with us would be dropped at one place in Quetta and the ladies with the children would stay at Mr. X’s house. We did not consider it safe for the ladies to stay alone with the children in Quetta. We, therefore, told the driver that Mr. X had never told us about this arrangement and so we could not leave the ladies alone. Finally it was agreed that I would accompany the ladies and the children to Mr. X’s house and the other male members would stay in a separate house. Accordingly, we dropped the male members in front of what looked like an abandoned house in a remote and secluded locality in Quetta. When we arrived at Mr. X’s house with the ladies it was about 6 am, twenty five hours after our departure from Karachi.

82

Our Stay in Quetta

We were all very tired, exhausted, and sleepy when we arrived at Mr.

VV X’s house. We were given one room with mattresses and blankets for the three families (without the other male members). The room was too small for three families, yet we did not complain. The house did not have any sanitary toilet and this was a serious problem for many of us, particularly for the children, who were not familiar with such a primitive system. On our request, arrangements were made for cleaning the toilet more frequently We did not see Mr. X or any male member in the house during our stay. Mrs. X and her daughter were looking after us and serving us breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. They were very kind and sympathetic to us and took great care to make our stay as comfortable as possible. The food, cooked by the two ladies, was reasonably good though the portion of meat was not enough for all of us. Instead of complaining, we decided to share the food equally among us.

We were not allowed to go out of the house and had to stay indoors all the time without making any undue noise to avoid being noticed by our neighbours. We did not see the town of Quetta except when we drove in and drove out. It is the capital of Baluchistan, the largest province in Pakistan, with an area of 343,000 sq. km and a thin population density due mainly to its arid climate. Quetta is situated at an elevation of 1667m (5500ft) and is surrounded by imposing hills. The inhabitants are mainly Pathans and Baluchis-two tribal clans not very friendly to each other. Nomadic tribes pass through the Quetta valley during the spring and the autumn with their herds of sheep and camels. We spent two days in Quetta, relatively comfortably. During this period our jeeps were repaired. We were finally set for our journey to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

83

The Journey from Quetta to Kandahar

We had an early breakfast in the morning of April 9. The vehicles

arrived at Mr. X’s house with all the male members whom we had left in a separate house. We came to know later that they were accommodated in an abandoned warehouse with poor ventilation and insufficient natural light. As usual we started our journey at 6 am to take advantage of the “golden hour” i.e. the period when the police forces changed their shifts. We had the same three jeeps, the same passengers and the escort car with some extra drivers and our chief escort, the “Commissioner.” Our convoy was passing smoothly along the valley and over a hilly and barren region. At around 8 am, we came to a check-post. A steel chain hanging from two wooden poles was blocking our way at the check post. The poles were not permanently fixed with the ground. Instead they were supported by a few stones only on both sides of the road. There was an armed guard at the check-post. We stopped at the gate and there was a dialogue between the guard and our drivers. The guard appeared to be reluctant to open the chain. He perceived clearly that the drivers were involved in trafficking Bengalis across the border. The drivers tried to convince the guard that they had permission from a superior government officer to let us cross the check-post.

At this point the drivers pointed to a car that had just arrived and said to the guard, “Look, the Commissioner has arrived. Please talk to him.” The vehicle that had arrived was in fact our escort car and the Commissioner was none but our chief escort! He was introduced to the guard as a superior government officer. He came out of the car in a composed posture as if he were the boss and approached the guard with a broad smile on his face. He requested the guard to open the chain. The guard did not oblige. He had a few more words with the guard but still the guard was adamant. At this point our chief escort sent a signal to the drivers. The drivers came back to their jeeps. Our driver drove back a few yards. We thought that he would turn back and perhaps try another route. Suddenly he started to accelerate. He hit the steel chain at a very

high speed pulling it down together with the wooden poles and sped away. The two other jeeps and the escort car followed us. This made the guard furious. He began to shout at us at the top of his voice. We were scared to death apprehending that he would surely start shooting at us. We ducked inside the jeep. After some time when we were at a safe distance, we sat normally. We were really surprised by the turn of events and it took quite some time for us to regain our normal composure.

We were later told that the whole episode was an orchestrated drama. The guard was bribed. He did not open the gate so that nobody could blame him. The barrier was built in such a way that it could be easily pulled down by the traffickers simply by hitting it and rebuilt by the guards without much difficulty! This explains why the wooden poles were not permanently fixed on the ground! Unfortunately, we had no advance information about this drama and as a result we panicked unnecessarily.

We continued our journey through a valley toward the border. The terrain was hilly, rugged and practically deserted. At one point we took a detour from the main road and were driving along a rough country terrain. Around 10 am our convoy stopped near a foot-hill. We came out of the vehicles leaving our hand bags inside. We were asked to walk a couple of miles on foot over a small hill to avoid a major check-post. The empty vehicles would pass through the regular check-post and then wait for us on the other side of the hill. We were made to understand that it would take an hour or so for us to cross it on foot. Our escorts engaged some young tribal boys to assist us while climbing up and down the slopes. We had two elderly ladies and several children who were reluctant to walk. Our escorts assured us that they would do everything that was needed to cross the hill.

We began our adventure on foot. It was a difficult job to climb uphill. The elderly ladies got tired soon. The local boys were literally carrying the two elderly ladies and the children on their shoulders. We decided to keep our daughter Usha with us. My wife and I were carrying her on our shoulders by turn. She was also able to walk short distances where the terrain was relatively flat. We had to stop frequently to take some rest. The escorts were warning us repeatedly to walk faster as there was always the possibility of being caught by the local security guards. It was getting cooler as we were climbing up. We were prepared for it

and put on warm clothes. When exhausted, we stopped for a couple of minutes, ate some biscuits and drank some water. More than an hour had passed but we were nowhere close to the top of the hill!

Finally around noon we reached the peak of the hill. It was a plateau with a beautiful panoramic view of the valley several thousand feet below us. We were totally tired, exhausted and hungry by then. When we were told to climb down the hill to the valley in front of us, my wife got panicky and nervous. She said to me, “I won’t be able to walk down this hill. I can’t go any further.”

Even at that crucial moment I joked with her and said, “In that case, you better stay here. We are going anyway!” Soon I started to walk downhill with Usha.

She was almost in tears. I assured her that the journey downhill would be easier than climbing up. We took some rest and had some food and water. When she regained some strength and courage, we started to walk again. Luckily the slope down hill was not very steep and we could walk down relatively with ease. We only had to be careful not to slip down the hill!

The tribal boys were a great help to us. They were helping almost every one of us during climbing up or walking down. They were holding our hands wherever the slope was very steep. Finally we climbed down to the valley and to our great joy we found our vehicles waiting for us. With wonder, we looked back and up toward the hill we had just crossed! It looked so majestic, so high and so rugged! Actually we could not believe that we had crossed it on foot! How could we do it? It is very difficult to answer. Perhaps it was the human urge for survival that gave us the will and the strength to respond to the need of the time. When the will is there, the physiology responds to the need of the situation.

We soon got into our vehicles. To our satisfaction, we found that our hand bags were intact inside the vehicles. My wife was initially hesitant to leave them in the jeep as they contained a few of her favourite sarees! We started to move again. This time we were driving over a flat terrain. At one point the driver said to us, “Congratulations! You have crossed the Pakistani border. You are now in the no man’s land!”

We were so happy to hear this announcement. It was like music to our ears. We expressed our gratitude to Allah for His mercy and congratulated each other. We felt so relieved and relaxed. We could see the Pakistani flag flying on top of a border post behind us and the Afghan

flag on another border post in front of us. We finally said good-bye to Pakistan. We soon arrived at a house which belonged to our chief escort. From outside it looked like an ordinary house made of clay. Inside it was reasonably luxurious. It had an expensive carpet on the floor and a diesel generator set for the supply of electricity. We also saw a refrigerator in one corner of the room. We put our hand bags on one side of the room and sat on the carpet in a very relaxed mood. The chief escort and the drivers also sat with us and we had a friendly conversation with them. The chief escort, by the way, was a reasonably educated person. He was well-dressed and had good manners. He spoke to us in English. At one point I asked him, “Can’t the Pakistani security guards chase us here?”

He said, “They dare not! It will be a full-scale war if they do!” He assured us that they would never make that mistake.

He told us that basically he was a businessman. It was a side business for him to help us to cross the border. He was involved mainly in import and export business. As Afghanistan is a landlocked country, its international trade is carried out through Pakistan and Iran. He imported household appliances from abroad via Pakistan and sold them in Afghanistan. He travelled widely in Europe. He provided us with some refreshments. We spent a couple of hours at his house and then took a bus, hired by our escorts, to Kandahar, our first destination in Afghanistan.

On our way we had to stop at the Afghan border post to complete our immigration formalities. As we entered into Afghanistan without any valid travel documents, our status was ‘illegal visitors” but nontheless officially welcome! We had to fill out some forms and were given some entry passes by the Afghan immigration to legalize our stay in Afghanistan

87

Our Stay in Kandahar

We arrived in Kandahar just after sunset and were taken to a mid

V level tourist hotel called ‘Mayfair’. We took a small room, washed, changed our clothes and went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. We had been in captivity virtually for two years in Pakistan and for the first time since then we began to enjoy the taste of freedom again. We enjoyed our dinner and went to bed early as we were tired of an entire day’s journey. The main purpose of our stay in Kandahar was to get the delivery of our baggage which our escorts had collected from our houses in Karachi.

The following day I sent two telegrams to Bangladesh, one to my brother in Dhaka and another to my father in my village home, giving the news of our safe arrival in Kandahar. At that time telegraph was the only reliable and quick method of long distance communication. I sent two letters by post to Karachi, one to my landlord and another to M. Yusuf conveying the same message. I apologized to my landlord for my inability to take leave from him before our departure. I advised M. Yusuf to take help from Mr. X, our agent, if he wanted to flee from Pakistan as we found him reliable and trustworthy. Perhaps he was taken into police custody together with other Bengalis before he could contact Mr.X.

As Bangladesh had no embassy in Kabul at that time, the Indian Embassy used to look after the interests of Bangladesh in Afghanistan. So we went to see the Indian Consul General in Kandahar. He received us very cordially and gave us some valuable information and advice regarding our stay in Afghanistan and the rest of our journey. He told us that we would be on our own in Kandahar and the Indian Embassy in Kabul would take care of us during our stay in Kabul and provide us with air tickets for our flight from Kabul to Delhi. The Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi would arrange our passage from Delhi to Dhaka. He also advised us about the exchange of currency and living conditions in Afghanistan.

Kandahar is situated at an elevation of 1,000m (3,281 ft) and it is the second largest city in Afghanistan. It is also the capital of Kandahar province. Alexander the Great founded the city in the 4th century BCE and named it Alexandria. Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Durrani Empire, made Kandahar the capital of Afghanistan in 1748. The capital was shifted to Kabul between 1773 and 1776. It is a major trading centre in the southern region of the country and is famous for its pomegranates and grapes.

In addition to its famous fruits, we had very good quality bread in Kandahar. My wife still cannot forget the taste of Kandahar’s bread. The atmosphere in the hotel was very lively. The latest Indian Hindi film songs were being played there all the time, sometimes very loudly! The food was reasonably good. We called the chef once and gave him recipes of some typical Bengali food items (alu bhorta and dal i.e., mashed potato and lentil soup), which he prepared for us whenever we ordered. We rested most of the time, occasionally visiting the city centre and the shopping areas. We converted all our Pakistani rupees into US dollars in Kandahar, thus cutting our final link with Pakistan. Our baggage arrived by a truck on April 13. All our baggage was intact.

We were really impressed by the services provided by Mr. X and his team. They were true to their words. They never betrayed us. The money we paid to them was very small compared to the services they provided to us. Personally I was deeply touched by the way they came to my rescue when I was dragged out of our vehicle by the bandits on our way to Quetta. They treated us like their guests during the whole journey. It is said that traditionally the tribal people are always ready to sacrifice their lives for the protection of their guests. Our escorts proved that the statement was true. To the best of our knowledge, Mr. X was not involved in any kind of smuggling. He was an advocate by profession and our escorts were his clients. He employed them to assist us so that we could return to Bangladesh. Without their assistance, we could not have crossed the border into Afghanistan. We are indeed thankful and grateful to Mr. X and his team.

90

From Kandahar to Kabul

As advised by the Indian Consul General, we hired a bus and left for A Kabul on April 14 in the morning. Kabul was approximately 500 km away by road from Kandahar. The journey was relatively smooth and uneventful. As we were driving towards the north, we were ascending to a higher elevation. Around 1 pm, we passed by the city of Ghazni, famous for the mausoleum of Sultan Mahmud and the tomb of Al-Beruni,

Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni was the ruler of the Ghaznabid Empire from 997 AD until his death in 1030 AD. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into a wealthy capital of an empire which spread to modern-day Afghanistan, most of Iran and regions of Pakistan and north-West India. He conducted numerous military campaigns to the neighbouring countries including the Indian sub-continent.

Al-Beruni (973-1048 AD) was a famous Persian scholar. He was contemporary to Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna in the western world, (980-1036 AD), another great Muslim scholar. Both of them contributed significantly to mathematics, medicine, philosophy, chemistry and other branches of science during what is commonly known as the Golden Age of Islam.

The great Persian poet Ferdousi completed his epic Shahnameh (The Epic of Kings) during the reign of Sultan Mahmud. Ferdousi was born in 935 AD in a village near Tus in Khorasan, now a province in Iran. Khorasan was annexed by the Ghaznabid Empire when Ferdousi was composing Shahnameh. After thirty years of hard labour, he finished the book containing 60,000 couplets and later travelled to Ghazni to present the book to Sultan Mahmud. According to some historians, Sultan Mahmud had promised a dinar for every couplet written in the Shahnameh i.e. 60,000 dinars but later retreated from his promise probably on the advice of some jealous poets of his court. He offered to the poet 20,000 dirhams, equivalent to only 200 dinars. Ferdousi felt insulted and rejected the offer. Enraged and disappointed, he returned to Tus. He wrote a long poem, more like a curse for the king, on the wall of the room where he had worked for thirty years to compose the epic story.

Ferdousi is said to have died in 1020 AD in poverty at the age of 90, out of frustrations for being deceived by the King but still confident of his success and fame. According to some historians, Sultan Mahmud later became repentant for his past mistake and sent the promised money to the poet’s village on a camel caravan. Unfortunately, the poet had died only hours before the caravan arrived. The gift was then given to his daughter. She too refused to accept the money. Later the king rebuilt an inn on the way to Tus as a memorial to the great poet. The inn now lies in ruins. It is interesting that this story of royal betrayal and remorse has become as famous as Ferdousi’s Shahnameh.

It was late afternoon, when we arrived at the Indian Embassy in Kabul. We filled out some forms and submitted copies of our photographs to them. We were told that it would take about a couple of weeks to process our papers for the issuance of our travel passes, in lieu of passports, and air tickets to New Delhi. In the mean time we were sent to a hotel, called “Nargis’. The Indian Embassy was our host in Kabul. We signed a declaration under oath at the embassy that we would be obliged to pay, on demand, to the President of India whatever expenditures were incurred for us in Kabul. I must admit that we are yet to receive any such demand from the Indian President! We are indeed grateful to the Government of India for the assistance they provided to us for our repatriation to Bangladesh.

When we arrived at Hotel Nargis, we discovered to our great disappointment that the condition of the hotel was a complete contrast to its beautiful name Nargis, which in Arabic means a flower. It did not look like a hotel. It had two tin sheds, one for men and another for women, with rows of ‘khatias” (cots) spread on a sandy floor. The toilet was improvised and unworthy to be used. We somehow managed to spend one night there. Next morning we decided to change the hotel as our daughter Usha refused to use the toilet.

Dr. Mannan and I went to the Indian Embassy and met with the officer who was looking after us. We told him about our problem. He listened to us very sympathetically and understood our problem. Having made some queries about us he said, “I will do something for you but you must not tell your other companions. A friend of mine who is a pilot in the Afghan Airlines has recently opened a hotel in Kabul. He requested me to send some people like you to his hotel. He said that he would not charge us or you anything extra even though his hotel is an expensive one. So let me try if I can send you to his hotel.” We gladly accepted his proposal. He called the

hotel by phone, made the necessary reservations and asked us to shift to the new hotel called “Shangri-La”. We returned to Hotel Nargis and checked out from there. Breaking our commitment to him we, however, told my friend A. Quaiyum about our new hotel and requested him to follow the same procedure for shifting to Shangri-La. He did not show much interest in shifting to a new hotel as he got settled at Hotel Nargis. I had known A. Quaiyum closely since my college days. He had enormous patience and capacity to adapt to very difficult situations without any complaint.

We were really happy to shift to Hotel Shangri-La. It was a brand new tourist hotel with modern bathrooms and running hot and cold water. The restaurant was very clean and it served local, Indian, and Chinese food. According to the contract with the Indian Embassy, the hotel was to serve three meals to us: (i) breakfast with two slices of bread, two eggs and tea, (ii) lunch with rice, meat curry and dal (pulses) and (iii) dinner with rice, vegetables and dal. The hotel authorities gave us complimentary butter and jam with breakfast and an afternoon tea. On our request, they served one egg, instead of two, with breakfast and another egg with dinner. So we had meat or egg with all the meals.

Kabul was first made the capital of Afghanistan in 1504 by Babur (also spelled as Babar) whose ambition was to conquer India. The location of Kabul was convenient to him because of its close proximity to the

Khyber Pass, the famous gateway to India. Of all the capitals of the world, it had the highest elevation, 1800m (~5900 ft). It was relatively cold even in April. Afghanistan was a very beautiful and peaceful country under King Zahir Shah. The country enjoyed a long period of stability under his rule spanning over forty years. He was dethroned by his brother-in-law Mohammad Daoud Khan in a bloodless coup in 1973, soon after we had left Kabul. • Afghanistan passed through many turbulent periods in history. Though physically barren to look at, it attracted numerous invaders like Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Timur Lang, Babur, and Nader Shah mainly due to its strategic location. It is situated virtually at the centre of Asia, surrounded by Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia (Middle-East) and connected to the Indian subcontinent by the famous Khyber Pass, as I mentioned earlier. The country had suffered a lot due to numerous invasions and was a victim of rivalry among super powers like USSR/Russia, the British and the United States of America.

The Afghans were very friendly to the Bengalis. Wherever we went, we were greeted warmly by them. Many Afghans told us that they were very fond of Bangladesh and of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman whom they revered like a hero. Without their cooperation and assistance, we could not have escaped from Pakistan and return to Bangladesh. Traditionally, the Afghans have always been hospitable to the visitors, except perhaps to the invaders!

Luckily our papers were processed very quickly by the Indian Embassy and we were due to fly to Delhi on April 21, 1973. We collected our travel passes and air tickets from the Indian Embassy and thanked them for their hospitality. We arrived at the airport in time for checking in. At the airport we met a few other Bengali families including that of N. H. Khan who later became Chairman of the National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh. We were worried about our excess luggage which we had carried all the way from Karachi but the Afghan Airlines were very generous and allowed us to carry our entire luggage without any excess fare in the true Afghan tradition of generosity and hospitality. The plane took off on time. I looked through the window and saw the high mountain range of the Hindu Kush in clear bright sun light. The peaks of the mountain range were still covered with white snow. I remembered the famous story of “Deshey Bideshey” (In Homeland and Abroad), written by a Bengali writer Syed Muztaba Ali. He had a very sincere and devoted Afghan domestic help by the name of Abdur Rahman

while he was living in Kabul. Muztaba Ali described Abdur Rahman’s character in the last sentence of his book which I still remember even though I read it during my school days. While flying back from Kabul, he looked around through the window of his plane and he wrote,

“There is the whiteness of snow all round; but whiter was the turban (cap) of Abdur Rahman, and even whiter than that was his heart!”

I quote this sentence in appreciation of the warm welcome and hospitality of the Afghan people whose hearts are indeed as white as that of Abdur Rahman.

95

From Kabul to Delhi

We arrived at the Delhi airport around noon and were received by

V Mohiuddin Ahmed of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi. Our companions were taken to a hotel in Delhi with the request to report to the High Commission on the following day. The High Commission made arrangements for their stay in Delhi and their onward journey by train to Dhaka.

My wife and I had to take leave from our companions, Dr. Mannan, A. Quaiyum and their families at the airport as Dr. A. R. Mallick, then High Commissioner of Bangladesh in India, kindly invited us to stay at his house. We were advised that my brother was arranging air tickets for us to fly to Dhaka from New Delhi. Dr. Mallick later became Minister of Finance in the Government of Bangabandhu. I had mentioned earlier that he was related to us.

I remember a small incident at the Delhi airport. After collecting our luggage we put all of them, including our hand luggage, on a cart to be carried by a loader to the bus/taxi stand. Mohiuddin Ahmed very politely told us that they had to pay Rs. 2.00 for each luggage put on the cart and so they could save some money if we carried our hand luggage with us. We appreciated his concern for saving some government funds and immediately took back our hand luggage from the cart. In appreciation, he thanked us for our cooperation. This incident touched me very much and Mohiuddin Ahmed later became one of our close family friends. I wish our other government servants were conscientious like him in saving public money. I may mention here that Mohiuddin Ahmed was one of the earliest Bengali diplomats who had defected from Pakistan and affirmed allegiance to the newly formed Bangladesh Government in exile in 1971. He worked closely with Justice Abu Sayeed Choudhury at the Bangladesh Mission in London during the war of independence.

We stayed in Delhi for about a week and had plenty of time for site seeing and a little bit of shopping. The weather in Delhi was hot even in April. The city of Delhi has two distinct parts: Old Delhi and New Delhi. Old Delhi became the capital of India during the Moghul period in 1639.

We visited the tomb of Emperor Humayun, the Red Fort, the Jamah Mosque, the Qutub Minar, and the tomb of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya among other places. New Delhi had been the capital of British India Since 1911 and again became India’s capital in 1947.

The tomb of Emperor Humayun was built in 1560, the first of many Moghul tomb complexes in India. Humayun was the son of Emperor Babur, the founder of the Moghul Empire in India, and the second Moghul emperor. It is said that Humayun once became very sick and was about to die. Babur loved Humayun very much. He circled the bed of Humayun several times in submission to Allah and prayed to Him, “Oh Allah, please save my son’s life and take mine in return.” Soon Humayun began to recover and Babur became ill. Babur refused to take any medicine prescribed by the court physicians and he submitted to death. Historians, however, disagree with this version of the story. According to them, there was a time gap, a couple of months, between Humayun’s recovery and Babur’s death. Babur was buried in a mousoleum in Agra even though he wished to be buried in his favourite

garden in Kabul. Nine years after his death, his wishes were fulfilled by Sher Shah Suri, an adversary of his son Emperor Humayun, and his body was buried again in a beautiful garden, Bagh-e-Babur’, in Kabul. The inscription on his tomb reads:

“Paradise is forever the abode of Babur the Emperor.”

Emperor Humayun ruled over northern part of modern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1530-1540 and again from 1555-56. Humayun lost his Indian territories to the Afghan Sultan, Sher Shah Suri, and regained them fifteen years later. After being forced to abdicate by Sher Shah Suri, Humayun fled into the deserts of Rajputana with a small group of followers. During this period in 1542, his son Akbar was born at Umarkot. On hearing the news of the birth of his son, he invited his followers and said, “I have nothing valuable with me to present to you on this happy occasion. I have only a small quantity of musk in this tiny box which I can offer to you. But I tell you, one day my son’s fame will spread the length and the breadth of the world as the fragrance of the musk fills the air.” His son, Emperor Akbar, ruled India from 1556 to

1605 and became famous as the greatest of all the Moghul emperors in India and came to be known as “Akbar the Great.”

The Red Fort was constructed by Emperor Shah Jahan, grandson of Emperor Akbar, in 1639 when he moved his capital back to Delhi from Agra. Significant developments of the fort were made by his son Emperor Aurangzeb. The fort is now the main tourist attraction of Delhi for its historical importance and architectural beauty. The palatial structures like the Dewan-i-Aam, Dewan-i-Khas, the Moti Masjid and the Rang Mahal bear evidences of unique Moghul architecture. Unfortunately, a large part of the Fort was destroyed by the British in 1857 when they crushed the so-called Sepoy Mutiny which was in fact the first Indian rebellion against the army of the British East India Company. It may be mentioned here that the East India Company put a foothold in India by defeating Nawab Siraj Ud Daulah, the independent ruler of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in the battle of Plassey in 1757. After the first Indian rebellion, the Government of India Act was passed in the British Parliament in 1858. It nationalized the East India Company and all its military and administrative powers were vested with the British Crown. India thus came under direct British rule.

The Jamah Mosque is the principal mosque in Delhi. It was built by Emperor Shah Jahan and completed in 1656. Its architecture is similar to

those of the Jamah Mosque in Agra and the Badhshahi Mosque in Lahore. The Qutub Minar is the world’s tallest brick minaret. Its construction was started in 1193 by the first Muslim ruler of India, Qutubuddin Aibak and completed in 1368 by Firoz Shah Tuglaq. The Minar is 72 meters (238 ft) high and has 379 steps leading to the top. The Iron Pillar standing beside the Qutub Minar was erected by Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (375 AD-417 AD) of the Gupta Dynasty. It is seven meters high and weighs more than six tons.

Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya was a famous Muslim saint who died in 1325. He was one of many Muslim saints who came to India to spread Islam. The tombs of the other saints are scattered all over India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and are visited by their devotees including Hindus throughout the year. Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya came to Delhi at the age of eighteen and settled in a village called Ghiyaspur where he lived for 60 years. Sultan Ghiyasuddin Tuglaq, the King, did not like Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. While returning from an expedition to Bengal, he sent a message to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya to leave Delhi before his arrival. When he received this message, he was advised by his followers to leave Delhi soon. Without being worried he replied, “Delhi is far away.” When the time of the Sultan’s arrival came close, his followers again requested him to leave Delhi. He again replied, “Delhi is far away”. When the news came that the Sultan was about to enter Delhi, the followers of Nizamuddin Auliya became worried about his safety and once again requested him to leave Delhi. He replied calmly, “Delhi is still far away.” When the Sultan was being received by his son outside Delhi, a ceremonial gate collapsed on him and the Sultan was killed under its debris. Delhi thus remained far away from him for ever.

We stayed in New Delhi very comfortably for a week waiting for our air tickets to arrive from Dhaka. Our companions, Dr. Mannan, A. Quaiyum and their families, left Delhi by train for Kolkata on way to Dhaka. Dr. Mallick, our host in New Delhi, was formerly a Professor of history at Rajshahi University. His method of teaching history was like telling stories. During the seven days we stayed with him, he told me many stories of the war of independence in Bangladesh in which he was an active participant

I would like to narrate one interesting story he told me about Indira Gandhi who had been Prime Minister of India during that time. When Pakistan attacked India on December 3, 1971, the President of India

immediately summoned the Parliament to session. Unfortunately, the session was being delayed as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was on tour in Kolkata, more than 1200 km away from Delhi. She wanted to rush to Delhi but she was advised by her security staff to go by road as flying would be too risky. Going by road to Delhi would further delay the session of the Parliament. Without listening to her security advisers, she drove straight to the airport and asked the local air force commander, “Which airplane is ready to fly now?” When a particular plane was pin-pointed, she immediately boarded the plane and said to the pilot, “As the Prime Minister of India I am ordering you to fly me to Delhi now.” The pilot had no other option but to oblige her. She flew back to Delhi in a couple of hours, though at the risk of her life, and soon the Parliament went into session.

On the second day after our arrival in New Delhi, Dr. Mallick told me that Tajuddin Ahmed, then Minister of Finance and Planning of Bangladesh, would be passing through Delhi on way to Manilla. He asked me to accompany him to the airport. Tajuddin Ahmed was received at the airport by D. P. Dhar, then Minister of Planning of India and another junior minister. He was due to fly again next morning and all of us including D. P. Dhar went to Hotel Ashoka where he was to spend the night. We sat down in the hotel suite and had some soft drinks together. While leaving the hotel, D.P. Dhar asked Tajuddin Ahmed, “When are you leaving for the airport tomorrow?”

“At six in the morning.” Tajuddin replied promptly. “You better leave at eight in the morning.” Dhar advised him politely. “My plane leaves at eight.” Tajuddin reminded. “Please leave at eight.” Dhar insisted.

Tajuddin got confused and asked, “How can I leave the hotel at eight when my plane leaves at the same time?”

Without answering the question directly to Tajuddin, Dhar turned to the junior Minister and said in a low voice, “Can’t you pretend to search his plane for drugs tomorrow morning and thus delay its departure by a couple hours to let the Minister sleep comfortably till eight in the morning?”

We all enjoyed the joke and laughed. D. P. Dhar was extremely polite. He shook hands with all of us and left. I had a brief conversation with Tajuddin Ahmed and then we left him at the hotel.

My acquaintance with Tajuddin Ahmed dates back to my school days. My brother was then a student of the University of Dhaka and he

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was staying in Room N-12 of Fazlul Huq Hall. Early in 1953, I stayed with my brother for about a month sharing the same room with him. His other roommates were Tajuddin Ahmed, Dr. Safar Ali Akanda, another close friend of my brother and later Professor of History at Rajshahi University, and Shamsul Alam of Barisal, then Vice-President of the Students’ Union of the Hall. Zillur Rahman, now President of Bangladesh, also lived in Fazlul Huq Hall at the same time. He later replaced Shamsul Alam as the Vice-President of the Students’ Union. Tajuddin Ahmed lived a very simple and disciplined life. His usual dress was a white pyjama and a striped shirt with half sleeves. He regularly washed his shirt and pyjama by hand in the morning and then spread them on the lawn of the hall for drying. In the late afternoon he would collect them, nicely fold them and put them below his pillows for pressing. Next morning he would wear them to go to his classes. I came to know later that he used to wash his clothes by hand every night and hang them in the washroom for drying before going to bed even when he was the Prime Minister of the Bangladesh Government in exile. If invited by my brother to have breakfast with us at the hall canteen, he used to decline politely saying that he did not like bread, butter and eggs, the usual breakfast in the canteen. Instead he had chira (pressed rice), gur (country made brown sugar) and a banana in the morning.

Tajuddin Ahmed was a regular speaker at all students’ meetings. He was also very popular among the people of his locality in Kapasia in Gazipur. The people from his village visited him quite often but he never allowed them to enter his room or the hall premises as it would disturb other students. He used to go out and meet them on the lawn outside the main gate of the hall. The people came to him for assistance for medical treatment, admission of their children in educational institutions, engagement of attorneys for cases in courts etc. He always listened to them attentively and helped them as much as he could. Often they brought chira (pressed rice), bananas and other fruits from their homesteads for him which he shared with us.

After I got admitted to Armenitola Government High School in Dhaka in 1953, being transferred from Mohanganj Pilot High School, my brother and I moved to a house at Training College Road, close to my school. The house belonged to Sharfuddin Ahmed of Sobhan Manjil, Armenitola. He was a behai (brother-in-law) of Abdul Monem Khan, later Governor of East Pakistan. A. Monem Khan made all the

arrangements of our stay in Dhaka. My brother was then a student of law at the University of Dhaka. Tajuddin Ahmed and other close friends of my brother were regular visitors to our house. They often shared meals with us during lunch or dinner. Tajuddin Ahmed did not like our flat dinner plates. He once complained to my brother and said, “I am not eating chops or cutlets at your house. I shall eat “dal-bhat” (lentil soup and rice). Why do you serve dal-bhat on such flat plates? I would prefer to eat on soup bowls instead.” We still have those dinner plates at our house at Mohanganj and remember his comments whenever we use them.

During the time of Ayub Khan, I once asked Tajuddin Ahmed, “As a leader of the opposition party, why do you always criticize all the actions of the government? You should at least appreciate some of the good things that the government does.”

He replied, “When I am hungry, I want to eat rice. If someone offers me a mixture of rice and paddy, can I swallow them? Please remember that military dictators always serve their own interests. One or two isolated good actions cannot change the condition of the people. Only a democratically elected government can serve the real interests of the people.”

Tajuddin Ahmed was a meritorious student and regularly kept a diary. In fact, his diary was one of the primary sources of information for the book History of Language Movement by Badruddin Umar. He later proved his ability as a great organizer of his party and a successful Prime Minister during the war of independence. He was well-read and had deep knowledge about politics. He was calm while taking decisions but firm in his convictions. The credit for the victory in the war of independence in Bangladesh goes to a great extent to his foresight, able leadership and great organizing capability. Unfortunately, his contributions to the independence of Bangladesh are yet to be evaluated properly.

During our stay in Delhi, I was once interviewed by an Indian intelligence agent. He was keen to know if Pakistan had any programme for nuclear weapons. I told him that to the best of my knowledge they had had no such programme during our service period. They probably started their weapon’s programme after our retrenchment. I recall that President Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto once stated that Pakistan would make the atom bomb “even if the people had to eat grass”! They developed their nuclear weapons after our return to Bangladesh.

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The Last Leg of Our Journey

We soon got our air tickets to fly to Dhaka. I was told later that Arham

V Siddiqui, a close friend of my brother Abdul Momin, arranged and paid for our air tickets and did not accept any reimbursement. Many people in Bangladesh, particularly the new generation, may not be aware of the contributions and sacrifices made by Arham Siddiqui for Awami League and the independence of Bangladesh. Arham Siddiqui, a member of the Working Committee of Pakistan Awami League, comes of a very well-to-do and aristocratic zamindar (landlord) family of Boliadi. He worked almost full-time for the Awami League in close association with my brother and Tajuddin Ahmed during the late 60’s and early 70’s. Very few political leaders of East Pakistan then possessed personal cars and financial resources. He had both. It was a regular routine for him to pick my brother and Tajuddin Ahmed in his car from their houses every morning before proceeding to Bangabandhu’s house at Road No. 32 in Dhanmandi. He used to spend the rest of the day with my brother and Tajuddin Ahmed carrying out the instructions of Bangabandhu. My brother was then living with my eldest sister at Azimpur. During lunch time, he often dropped unannounced by my sister’s house with Tajuddin Ahmed and Arham Siddiqui for a quick meal. My sister was always prepared with some extra food for such unexpected but welcome guests, Both Tajuddin Ahmed and Arham Siddiqui thus became our close family friends. Arham Siddiqui fled to India with other Awami League leaders after the army crackdown in 1971 and took part in the war of independence. He now lives a secluded life at his residence in Gulshan, Dhaka. He sacrificed his time, energy, profession and money for Awami League and Bangladesh, perhaps without any recognition from his party.

Finally on April 27, 1973 we flew to our final destination Dhaka. It was a smooth and pleasant flight and we arrived at the Dhaka airport around noon. We again expressed our gratitude to Allah for our safe return to Bangladesh. It was a dream come true. While disembarking from the plane at the Dhaka International Airport, I was hesitant to put

my feet on the soil of Bangladesh that was soaked with the sacred blood of three million Bengali martyrs. Many of our relations and friends were present at the airport to greet us. The absence of my cousin Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan and nephew Kanchan at the airport was very conspicuous. It was a very emotional re-union. We met them with a mixed feeling of joy and sorrow. The joy was for our re-union and the sorrow was for the loss of my cousin and my nephew.

At the airport I had to fill out a form (A-form) to declare my unaccompanied luggage which I had booked from Delhi. These items included mostly our personal belongings which we had carried from Karachi. After completing the form, I handed it over to a customs officer. He looked at the form and then advised me to declare a car and a refrigerator as my unaccompanied baggage. I told him that I did not have any such item as unaccompanied baggage.

“You are entitled to bring such items as unaccompanied baggage. So why don’t you make the declaration?” he reminded me.

“How can I declare since I did not bring any such item?” I asked him. “You can place orders from here to bring the items,” he was insisting. “Where shall I get the money to place the orders?” I asked him.

At this point several other customs officers gathered there and they simply looked at each other’s faces without saying anything. They perhaps wanted to say something but could not do so in presence of my brother, then a Member of Parliament, and some high government officials like Syed Ahmed, then Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home and later Cabinet Secretary, who came to the airport to receive me.

“By making the declaration, you keep the option open. You may change your mind and decide to bring these items later.” he was again insisting

Unfortunately, I had to disappoint him. I passed through the customs without declaring any car or refrigerator as unaccompanied baggage.

I discovered later why the customs officer was insisting so much for including a car and a refrigerator in my declaration. At that time normal import of luxury items like cars and refrigerators was totally banned in Bangladesh. One could, however, bring such items only as unaccompanied baggage. It was explained to me that the customs officer intended to utilize my declaration (A-form) for his personal gain. It was his intention to import the declared items himself in order to sell them in the market at high prices.

This was a shocking experience for me soon after my return to independent Bangladesh. I expected a higher standard of morality and integrity among the government officers. I mentioned earlier that we returned to our motherland from Pakistani captivity with a dream to work for the country with patriotism, devotion and honesty. Unfortunately, that dream got its first blow at the airport soon after our arrival. I began to wonder how some people of Bangladesh could forget the sacrifices made by three million martyrs and indulge in such kinds of corruption so soon after our independence!

After completion of the formalities at the airport, we went to my brother’s residence in Dhanmandi to meet my parents who were waiting eagerly to meet us. My parents’ eyes had tears of joy on seeing us. They told us how much they had missed us and how much they had been praying for our safe return. We had very touching moments when we met my eldest sister and brother-in-law, i.e., the parents of Kanchan. We could hardly utter any word. Only through tears we exchanged our mutual feelings. I may mention here that my eldest sister’s house in Dhaka used to be full of guests most of the time. My brother-in-law, Ali Akbar Khan, was a very affectionate and charming person. He and my sister enjoyed entertaining guests. During our frequent visits to Dhaka from Karachi we always stayed with my eldest sister. Because of the presence of too many guests at the house, my nephews and nieces slept mostly on the floor. It was Kanchan who regularly made the beds on the floor at night and removed them in the morning. He used to take good care of everyone in the house including the guests. He spent a lot of time helping his parents in their household work. He was indeed a lovable child and we all liked him so much. We felt his absence soon after our arrival in Dhaka. Unfortunately, my brother-in-law died in 1995. My sister and her entire family later migrated to U.S.A. Her eldest son Ali Afzal Khan, a chemical engineer, became the Managing Director of Ashuganj Fertilizer Factory and now lives with his family in Greensboro in North Carolina. Her second son Dr. Ali Athar Khan is now a ViceChancellor of Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. Her other children live in New York, Boston, Dallas and Baltimore.

My uncle, father of my cousin Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan, had an emotional outburst when I met him. He was wailing and asking me repeatedly, “Where is my son Fazlu? Where is my son Fazlu? He did not

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leave Dhaka before the army crackdown as he was waiting for you to come to Dhaka. Now you have come, but where is he?” There was a story behind his outburst. After the postponement of the National Assembly on March 1, 1971, my cousin wrote a letter to me in Karachi on March 2. advising me to return to Dhaka immediately with my family. He apprehended that the political situation would deteriorate rapidly and it would not be safe for us to stay in Karachi anymore. He planned to leave Dhaka and go to our ancestral home at Mohanganj in Netrakona with us after our return. He himself did not leave Dhaka waiting for us to return. I got his letter in Karachi sometime in April, when he was no more. Before leaving Karachi, I destroyed most of my old letters but decided to preserve this one.

I came to know later how my cousin and my nephew met their tragic ends. In the evening of March 25, 1971, the situation in Dhaka became very tense. Everyone was apprehensive that some kind of army action would start that night. My cousin went to visit his brother-in-law, Dr. Shamim-uz-Zaman, Professor of Civil Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET). My nephew Kanchan went to visit his parents at Azimpur. Both of them were advised not to return to their house inside the University of Dhaka campus as that was the centre of the ongoing political movement and could be a target of an army assault. My cousin went back to his house telling his brother-in-law that Kanchan would be alone in the house if he did not return. Kanchan did the same telling his parents that his uncle would be alone in the house if he did not return. Both of them returned to the campus, as if destiny brought them together, to meet the same tragic ends.

Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan and his elder brother Prof. Bazlur Rahman Khan were born at our ancestral home at Mohanganj. They lost their mother, my father’s first cousin, during their early childhood. My mother nursed them after their mother’s death. For this reason they addressed my mother as Amma (mother). We lived together at our house like a joint family during our childhood. We were contemporaries even though I was the youngest. We ate together, bathed together in our pond, went to school together and played together during our early life. We grew up side by side more like friends. My cousins later moved to their own house with their parents, not too far from ours, but our close relationship continued even after they had shifted to their new house.

I received Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan in London in 1964 when he first arrived there. At that time I was studying in Liverpool for my Ph.D. degree. I was in Karachi with my wife when he returned from London after obtaining his Ph.D. in Soil Science from the Imperial College in 1968. He did not, however, inform me about his arrival in Karachi while returning from London as the plane arrived very late at night. After coming through the immigration and customs, he took a taxi from the airport and came to my house at 5 am. He did not want to disturb my sleep so early in the morning. So instead of waking me up, he sat on his luggage for two hours in front of my house waiting for me to wake up. I discovered him sitting outside my house when I woke up in the morning and went to the front gate to collect the newspaper! This is just an example to show how considerate he was to the comfort of his younger cousin even though I was not very happy for not being able to receive him at the airport. This incident also reveals his character. He would suffer but he would not let others suffer for him. Together with three million martyrs, he and Kanchan shed the last drops of their blood in extreme pain and suffering only to see that the rest of the Bengalis and their future generations enjoy the fruits of freedom in an independent Bangladesh.

On April 28, 1973 I reported for duty at the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), my parent organization. There I met Dr. Anwar Hussain, then Officer on Special Duty in-charge of BAEC, Dr. M. A. Mannan, Director (Physical Science), M.A. Quaiyum who escaped with me from Pakistan and Dr. M. Wazed Miah, Director (Training). All of them later became Chairmen of BAEC. I was soon appointed the Director of the Nuclear Power and Technology Division after receiving clearance from the Government of Bangladesh.

As was expected, the economic condition of Bangladesh was not in a good shape after our return. The inter-district communications were shattered due to the destruction of bridges and culverts during the war, first by the Mukti Bahini and later by the Pakistani armed forces before their retreat. Essential items like rice, wheat, sugar, baby food, edible oil, cloth and kerosene were in short supply. It was a common sight in Dhaka at that time to see people waiting in long queues in front of ration shops or government stores for such items. On several occasions I met with the Chairman of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), to get supplies of baby food, cloth and other items for distribution to my

colleagues in BAEC through our Departmental Co-operative Store. I saw my sister-in-law, Rebeca Momin, waiting in queues for kerosene as they did not have natural gas for cooking at their house even though my brother was then a Member of Parliament and the Treasurer of the ruling Awami League. With the help of my friend Nizamul Haque, who worked in Titas Gas Company in a managerial position, I arranged the supply of gas to her house. It was a great relief to her. I must mention here that after my arrival in Dhaka, we lived with my brother for several months as there was an acute shortage of houses in the city due to an influx of a large number of Bengalis from Pakistan. Later we moved to a two-room apartment in my second sister’s house. The newly opened foreign embassies and missions also occupied a large number of houses in prime locations in Dhaka creating an additional pressure on housing. Even in such conditions of scarcity, the ordinary people in general were not in despair. They accepted the reality of the situation hoping that the condition would improve in the future. A few government servants and some businessmen became very greedy and ambitious. There was a competition among them to get rich overnight by any means.

Before I conclude my story, I must narrate my first, and perhaps my last, meeting with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after my return to Dhaka. I was attending the wedding reception of Faruq Hasan Mallick, the eldest son of Dr. A. R. Mallick, at the Dhaka Club. At the reception I was sitting in one comer of the main hall together with other guests that included ministers, ambassadors and other elites of the city. Suddenly it was announced that Bangabandhu, then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, had arrived. Everybody became alert soon after the announcement. Bangabandhu was received on arrival by Dr. A. R. Mallick and his wife. After greeting the bride (Sadya Afreen Mallick, a famous singer of Nazrul’s songs) and the bridegroom at the reception room, Bangabandhu entered the main hall. Naturally all eyes turned towards him. A pin-drop silence was prevailing all over. He stopped for a while, looked around and soon noticed me sitting in the diagonally opposite corner of the hall. His face lit up and immediately he called me by name in such a loud voice that everyone in the room, including myself, was taken by surprise. Hardly anyone knew me there. All the guests soon started to look around wondering about this obscure “Matin.” In all humility I stood up. I was obviously flattered by this gesture of Bangabandhu and felt a little

embarrassed as everyone was looking at me when I walked up to him. After I came close to him, he affectionately put his arm around my shoulders in his usual style and said, “I heard how you escaped from Pakistan and returned to Bangladesh. You must have suffered a lot during the journey.” Apparently he got all the information from my brother who had told me before that Bangabandhu used to enquire about me quite frequently. He did the same with Dr. Wazed Miah, Sheikh Hasina’s husband and my colleague in Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. Dr. Miah once asked me, “Why did Bangabandhu keep asking about you every now and then?” I replied humbly, “How would I know? Perhaps he was too fond of me for unknown reasons!” I had a brief conversation with Bangabandhu before I took leave. He enquired about my wife and my daughter. I shall treasure this memory all my life. I must say that it was merely my luck that I had earned so much love and affection of Bangabandhu.

It is perhaps the darkest chapter in our history that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to whom we owe so much for the independence of Bangladesh, was brutally killed with other members of his family on August 15, 1975. His deputy Tajuddin Ahmed, who had successfully led the war of independence in Bangladesh as its first Prime Minister, was also killed together with three other national leaders, Syed Nazrul Islam, former Vice President, Mansur Ali and A. H. M. Quamruzzaman, former ministers, while being in custody inside the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3 of the same year. Some disgruntled army officers were involved in both the gruesome killings. We are ashamed as a nation that we failed to protect our national leaders who made so much sacrifices for the independence of Bangladesh.

At this point I am tempted to add a few words as a tribute to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. From mid 1940’s, he was an active participant in all the student and mass movements in British India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. As a consequence, he spent more than eleven years in prison. He was always very quick in grasping a situation and in making decisions. He could correctly read others’ minds looking at their faces. In conversations, Bangabandhu could perceive correctly and precisely what the other person wanted to say before the completion of the sentence. His oratory was unique and unparalleled. He could keep his audience spellbound for hours. He never forgot the name and face of a person once introduced to him. His 6 point demands for the autonomy of

East Pakistan in 1966 were very timely and made him immensely popular among his people resulting in his landslide victory in the 1970 general election. Every step he took after the general election was well planned. He never took a hasty decision which could jeopardize his ultimate goal. He declared the independence of Bangladesh on March 26, 1971 when all avenues for a peaceful solution were exhausted. Any earlier declaration, as I mentioned before, would have labelled him as a seccessionist and the whole movement could go astray. Yahya Khan’s refusal to handover power to Bangbandhu, the army crackdown of March 25, 1971, the indiscriminate killings of the unarmed civilians by the Pakistani army and the exodus of ten million refugees from Bangladesh to India were sufficient grounds for the declaration of independence of Bangladesh. As a result, thanks to the statesmanship of Bangabandhu, recognition of Bangladesh by foreign countries as an independent and sovereign state began to pour in soon after the surrender of the Pakistani army in Dhaka. No wonder, Bengalis revere Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the Father of the Nation. Truly, he deserves this honour.

Within a month after our departure from Karachi, all the Bengalis who had been in service in Pakistan and could not escape were taken into custody by the police together with their families. They were kept in captivity for about six months and were repatriated to Bangladesh in 1973-74 in exchange for the 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war held in India after the Simla Agreement between India and Pakistan. Bangladesh wanted to hold and try several hundred Pakistani army personnel for war crimes. They were finally repatriated to Pakistan without trial on the assurance given by the Government of Pakistan that they would try those found guilty. Unfortunately they did not keep their promise. Till now, Pakistan did not formally apologize to Bangladesh for the atrocities committed by their army in Bangladesh. They also betrayed a large section of the Urdu speaking Pakistanis living in Bangladesh by not repatriating them to Pakistan. Migrating from India they settled in Bangladesh after the partition of India and sided with the Pakistanis during the war of independence. They are still living in refugee camps in Dhaka in very poor conditions hoping against hope that they would one day return to Pakistan. Lastly Bangladesh was denied its due share of assets that had accumulated in (West) Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 from the export of jute produced entirely in Bangladesh.

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Among the people I mentioned, I lost my father in 1978 and my mother twenty years later. My father-in-law, Salahuddin Ahmad, died in 1980 while serving as the Honorary Treasurer of the Rajshahi University. Dr. A. R. Mallick died in Dhaka in 1997.

My brother Abdul Momin, who later became Minister of Food and Relief in the cabinet of Bangabandhu, expired on July 15, 2004 in Dhaka while he was a Member of Parliament. As a Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation, he successfully introduced the “Food for Work” programme for the first time in Bangladesh. He was placed in charge of the Food Ministry at a very difficult time when the country was reeling under a famine in 1974. In a short time he managed to overcome the famine. This success story is described by S. A. Karim, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, in his book Sheikh Mujib: Triumph and Tragedy as follows:

“Mujib himself came to the conclusion that he would have to give up his business-as-usual approach to administration and take new initiative. He began to rely on more competent people to improve the lot of the ordinary people. Among the people he brought into his Cabinet was Abdul Momen (correctly spelt as Abdul Momin) as Food Minister. New to his job, he applied common sense rather than book-learning to manage the food crisis. He gave up inter-district cordoning, favoured by the bureaucracy in blind imitation of the inter-provincial cordoning practised during the 1943 famine. The abolition of cordoning reduced the incentive to smuggling within the country and the profiteering associated with it. By the end of 1974 the famine was almost over and there were hopeful signs of recovery.”

I recall an interesting incident that occurred soon after my brother had taken over as the Minister for Food. In defiance of traditional parliamentary practices, he frankly and truthfully announced in the Parliament that a famine had existed in the country and that people had been dying out of starvation. Some of his colleagues in the cabinet could not appreciate this frank and truthful admission. They brought the matter to the notice of Bangabandhu and told him that this admission would defame him and his government. Bangabandhu expressed his displeasure to my brother by not talking to him when they met in the same evening. Next morning there was an editorial in the Daily Ittefag, then a prominent and very powerful national newspaper, praising my brother and the government of Bangabandhu for setting a rare example in parliamentary

history by making a factual and courageous admission on the famine in Bangladesh. Bangabandhu read this editorial and was very pleased about it. That morning he greeted my brother with a broad smile in his face! He realized that truthfulness was always rewarded. I may add here that my brother never hesitated to tell the truth, even when it was a bitter one.

On the advice of my brother, the Haor (wet land) Development Board was created by Bangabandhu to cater to the need of the haor areas. My brother was elected to the Parliament five times in his life. After his death, all political leaders belonging to both the government and the opposition paid tributes to him for his honesty and dedicated service to the nation. His honesty came to limelight when the travelling allowance bills of all the Ministers were published by the Government in 1974 on the demand by the opposition Members of Parliament. It was revealed that the highest claim had been made by Dr. Kamal Hossain, then Minister for Foreign Affairs, amounting to several million taka and the lowest claim by my brother amounting to only Tk 125/- (then US $ 12) only. As Minister for Food and Relief, he had to travel almost daily from one corner of the country to another. He used to travel by a helicopter provided by the then Soviet Union. He never claimed any travelling allowances even though he was entitled to claim as per government regulations. He used to argue that he hardly had to spend any money from his pocket for his travels and so he never claimed except once when he had spent Tk 125/- to buy tickets for a train journey to Mymensingh. He lived a very simple life. He left his profession to work for his party in early 60’s and he had no financial interest in any business of profit during his entire political career. He lived with his family on his salary as a Member of Parliament or his modest income from his ancestral property. His honesty was a rare example among the politicians in Bangladesh or in the sub-continent.

My brother-in-law Reazuddin Ahmed, his brother Dr. Mannan, who was our companion during our journey from Karachi up to Delhi, and my cousin Dr. Bazlur Rahman Khan, who retired as Professor of History from the Jahangirnagar University, are no more with us. Needless to say, we miss them all so much.

Usha now lives in Connectcut with her husband Prof. Muhammad Niamat Elahee, daughters Mely and Zariya and son Zayed My second daughter Shubarna lives with her husband Engr. Sharif Siddiqui and sons Shiham and Shameer in

Maryland in the United States of America. I am living a retired life in Dhaka with my wife and youngest daughter Asha who is studying Economics at the Brac University

I mentioned earlier that I had told this story, at least in parts, to many of my friends and relations. Some admired our determination and courage; others questioned our wisdom to undertake such a risky journey. In my heart I have no regrets. Faced with a similar situation, I will do it again, Insha-Allah (God willing)!

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