Tag: Bangladesh

First Diplomat from Bangladesh.

Abul Fateh (born 1924) is the Bangladesh diplomat who became that country’s first Foreign Secretary when it gained its independence in 1971. He was an unusual diplomat of his time, as he was Bengali-born, but had managed to work his way up the ranks of the Pakistani power structure. Then when Bangladesh began seeking independence, it was a massive morale boost for the Bangladeshi people, for people of Fateh’s stature to resign from the Pakistani power structure, and support the fledgling country of Bangladesh. Fateh was the highest-ranked and most senior foreign service officer in the new country. His story was later documented in a National Geographic documentary, Running for Freedom.

After the Pakistani military crackdown in March 1971, Abul Fateh received a request from a former university dormitory mate, Syed Nazrul Islam, to join the liberation struggle. At about the same time, in July 1971, Fateh received a summons from the Pakistan Foreign Ministry to attend a conference in Tehran of regional Pakistani ambassadors. He chose to take his official car ostensibly to drive to Tehran but, as he and his driver approached the Iran-Iraq border, he feigned chest pains and ordered the driver to return him home, where he arrived that evening. Saying that he would take a plane the next day, he dismissed the driver. That night, he fled with his wife and sons across the border into Kuwait, from where they took a plane to London.

The announcement of Fateh’s defection to the Bangladesh cause marked the first time a full ambassador had joined the fledgling Bangladesh diplomatic service. The news was received with fury by the military regime in Islamabad, which meanwhile had discovered that on the afternoon just before his supposed departure for Tehran, he had cleared out the Pakistan Embassy bank account in Baghdad to the benefit of the Bangladesh government. The military regime’s requests to extradite him from London were rebuffed by the British Government. These events were chronicled in a 2003 National Geographic Channel television documentary, Running for Freedom.

Abul Fateh (second from left) with his family in London.

The Mujibnagar government made him ambassador-at-large, followed in August 1971 by the concurrent position of Advisor to the Acting President, a position he was to resign in January 1972 after the return to Bangladesh of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He had a leading role, as the Bangladesh movement’s senior-most diplomat, in a delegation under Justice Abu Sayed Choudhury which went to the United Nations in New York to lobby for the Bangladesh cause. He was also in communication with other governments, such as the Nixon administration via the French consul. He was one of the first high officials to reach Dhaka after its liberation, and was quartered with other senior officials in Bangabhaban until January 1972. Already the effective head of the incipient foreign service, he became Foreign Secretary at the end of 1971.

Source

Some posters of 1971’s Liberation War.

Dear Readers, as it is December, the month of victory of Bangladesh, I am trying to post topics related to the Liberation War of 1971. It is very much fascinating for me as I am googling numerous sites in search of topics related to the 1971’s war and chapters of the past history of Bangladesh is revealing in front of me. It’s really an speechless feeling to know the past of your nation from other than the text books. And I am trying my best to give you the flavor of that feelings.

These are the some posters that were published in 1971 during the Liberation war. These posters helped Bangladesh to gain international support during the war. The first one is a legendary poster, produced by famous Bangladeshi artist Potua Kamrul Haasan. This is a caricature of Yahya Khan.







If anyone have more link(s) for other 1971’s war posters, please share the link(s) in this blog.

First Postal Stamp of Bangladesh.

First postal stamp of Bangladesh was published on July 29, 1971. It shows the whole map of Bangladesh. Only three colors are there: red, dark purple & light blue. It’s denomination is 10p [ten poisa]. It’s perforation is 14×14 1/2. On the stamp, the word Bangladesh is written three times; two times in English and on the upper left corner in Bangla. This stamp served mainly two purposes; to familiarize Bangladesh with the rest of the world as well as to convince other countries to support Bangladesh in the Liberation War.

First Flag of Bangladesh.

The first flag of the independence movement of Bangladesh in 1971 was somewhat different than the present one. That flag had a map of Bangladesh in gold color embedded  at the center of the red circle. This was the original design of the flag of Bangladesh under which the valiant freedom fighters fought during our liberation war. On the 3rd of March 1971, ASM Abdur Rab, the then Vice President of Dhaka University Student’s Union, hoisted the flag for the first time at the historic Dhaka University location known as Bot-tola. This flag was also raised at the then Ramna Racecourse (now a park renamed as Shuhrawardy Uddayan) when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave his historic speech proclaiming “…this struggle is the struggle for liberation…“.

First Flag of Bangladesh

Salute to the Martyrs of the Bangladesh Liberation War 1971.

December, an extremely significant month in the history of Bangladesh. This is the month of victory for Bangladesh. On December 16, 1971; Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) achieved independence from Pakistan (then West Pakistan) after a continuous war of nine months, which is known as “Liberation War” or “Mukti Juddho”.

During the war there were widespread killings and other atrocities – including the displacement of civilians in Bangladesh and widespread violations of human rights – carried out by the Pakistan Army with support from political and religious militias began with the start of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971. At the end of the war Bangladesh lost 3 millions of her brave people.

I am remembering those valiant gems of Bangladesh without whom a new nation couldn’t be born. Without them we are nothing. They are our history. The brave soldiers of Bangla, we never forget you. You are our hero, our pride, our existence. May Allah give us strength so that we can stand against them who opposes you as well as the liberation war.

Dream of a New Bangladesh!

December… the month of victory of Bangladesh. In 1971, in this month, Bangladesh achieved her independence from today’s Pakistan. After the victory, all Bangladeshi people dreamt of a new era, a new history. this year, 36th December has come to Bangladesh, but did our dream become true? From the point where I stand, I don’t find that Bangladesh for which 3 millions people died in the liberation war of 1971. What we got in the last 36 years?

Last 36 years, Bangladesh was totally under the grasp of the politics. Every Bangladeshi will admit the truth that the main reason of the lack of proper development of this country is the political parties. Here political parties do politics for their own benefits. They don’t think about the people and the country. By the way, they think of people only in the time of election. They introduced student politics to fortify their power. They became richer and richer. Suddenly things became changed. Once who were considered above all laws, now are in jail for their past misdeeds. This happened after the Caretaker Government took the power in this January when the polical parties made the situations of the country worst in the history of Bangladesh. Thanks to the caretaker Goverment for firmly handle the situation.

I know some people don’t like this Caretaker Goverment as they are not the elected one. But just think what have the elected parties done to us? What benefit they brought for us? We always forget the past, that’s the problem. We quickly forgot the incidents of November-December of 2006. I still remembered those days, when I got out of home everyday morning, I didn’t know whether I could get back. Every streets were turned into battle ground between various political parties. Is their war for our betterment? No that’s only for their own good and power. Just see what they have done to our country in the last 36 years. Bangladesh don’t have any heavy industries like automobile industries. Our neighouring country India is now doing offsourcing to other developed countries but we are doing? Now a days the economical condition is seemed to be improved. The only problem is the high price of every thing. I believe the goverment will take necessary steps to control the situation.

Sidr, the most devastating cyclone in the history of Bangladesh has hitted the country in this November. The southern part of the country was massacred. Our pride Shundorbon was wiped out along with it’s heterogeneous species. People faced terrible sufferings. All Bangladeshis, from home or aboard, are helping the affected people with their full abilities. Sorry… not all the Bangladeshis are helping. Our beloved political leaders are not participating in the relief works. But if you recall any of the previous natural calamities, you should also recall their smiling faces while distributing relief among the people at that time on all the television channels. What have changed their mind? Are they saving funds for their upcoming election procedure? Or are they ashamed of what they had done in the last 36 years?

I am not a mind reader. I don’t know what is in their mind. But I can tell what is an ordinary Bangladeshi’s dream is. Like all the fairy tales we just want to say “…and they lived happily ever after!” about us. Can’t we make this line true in our life? Can’t we hope a fresh Bangladesh where there will be no corruption, people will have no complain, every people will be proud of being a part of this country. Can’t we start to rebuild our dream country?

Farewell to the Fairyland.

This article I wrote immediately after my graduation from IUT. In my little life IUT has a robust impact. It was very difficult for me to leave IUT after graduation. From that hollow feelings I wrote this article. It was first published in ROOTS, the annual publication of IUTAA in 2006. I was almost forgotten about this writing. While rearranging my book shelves I got the first issue of ROOTS which reminded me about this article. I think I should share this article with my readers. That’s why it is in my blog after a so long time. By the way all these pictures of IUT were taken by me… 🙂

‘Once upon a time, there was a small country with enormous beauty. In that country, there is a fairyland where little fairies from various countries were studied to become a proper perfect fairy…’ this could be the starting of this story, as it looks like a fairy tale to me. But for me this story is going to be finished. It is the end of an era. A chapter of my life is drawing to totally close. I could not believe that I have finished my Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree. To be precisely on September 3, 2006 at 12:30 pm, I had appeared my very last exam, marking the end of my undergraduate ‘career’. After finishing the exam, when I stepped out of the exam hall, I felt that the 20 years old buildings of IUT were looking at me with a silent pride. Every step seemed me as though I was turning over the last few pages of the most enriched chapter of my life. Instead of joy suddenly my heart was filled with a tacit mourn. I could not take my lunch; my whole memory was flushed with the last four years. My memory swept me to a day, four years ago, when I entered to the IUT with a smell of a fresher …

Front view of IUT
Front view of IUT

THE SCARLET REALM
During my 1st year in Notre Dame College, one of my relatives first mentioned me the name of Islamic University of Technology (IUT). He gave me a rough sketch of the enriched faculties, the organized environment for study and of course the beautiful scenery of IUT. But those things did not attract me, which attracted me most is the abbreviated name I-U-T. What a sweet–cute-little name! From then I dreamt to be an IUTIAN.
backward view

Red is everywhere

I first saw IUT in IUT’s official website and the result was a deeper feeling to get in touch of IUT. But the harder fact is IUT is in Gazipur, which means to visit IUT an inter-district travel was necessary. in that time this was really a very tough task for me to go to Gazipur. Also I heard that non-IUTIANS are not allowed to get inside IUT (as it is a diplomatic zone). These matters delayed my first step in IUT. Continue reading Farewell to the Fairyland.

Please… Help the Sidr victims.

Dear Readers,

All of us all ready knew what Sidr actually have done to our country and our people. Over 2000 people were killed. People who had survived, have lost their families and shelter. They are out of food and cloth. Even they don’t have a piece of cloth for wrapping the dead bodies. Schools and Hospitals were blown away. They don’t have enough medical treatment facilities. How can we call it LIVING. It is not so much different from the DEATH. In the past, whenever Bangladesh faced any natural calamities, our people always extended their hands for the help of the victims. Why can’t we do this once again? Why doesn’t Humanity win once again?

For reaching the Sidr victims, I tried to gather information about ways you can help them. I tried to list them all in this post. If I miss any please don’t hesitate to mention that in the Comment Box.

Chief Adviser’s Relief and Welfare Fund

Any one can donate money to this fund to help the victims. You can also donate relief goods here. For more information please visit the site.

Control Room of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management

If you want to reach the affected areas, you can contact this control room to know which area is deprived from the relief help. For more information visit the site.

International Help Funds

You can also make your donation through the following sites:

National Endeavours

One of the Bangla blogging engine, Somewhere in… blog started a campaign to collect relief funds for the Sidr victims. They named this effort as Jagoron Campaign. This is a sms based help fund. If you send only one SMS from your mobile phone written “save” and send it to 5455 from any Bangladeshi mobile operator then corporate sponsors will add their donation for “save the childen fund relief for Sidr victim people”.

The following process represent the whole process how the Jagoron Campaign works.

 

 

Banglalink, one of the mobile operators of Bangladesh, take initiatives to raise funds for the Sidr victims. From any Banglalink mobile phone number, you can send SMS and donate taka ten with every SMS. For this you need to type ‘HELP’ in the messege text and send to 1010. Each time, tk 10/- (vat included) will be cut from the customer’s account and the full money will be donated to the Chief Advisor’s Relief Fund.

Can’t we make a little contribution to any of the above funds? Our little help can make a face enliven. If we don’t help ourselves who’ll be there to help us!