Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday informed parliament that efforts are underway to collect information of the prison life of Bangabandhu in the Pakistani jail during the Liberation War, reports BSS.
“The book titled ‘Karagarer Rojnamcha’ was published from compilation of the jail diary of the Father of the Nation from 1966 to 1968 and he wrote a little part of it staying at the cantonment,” she said.
“We didn’t get any writings of Bangabandhu from 1971. Because we don’t know about how and in what condition he lived in the Pakistani jail,” she said while responding to a supplementary raised by Jatiya Party lawmaker Mujibul Haque Chunnu in the House.
Sheikh Hasina, also the elder daughter of Bangabandhu, said a small sentence was gotten from the Ayub Khan’s diary published from the Oxford.
“There were a very few words in the book on Bangabandhu. When he (Bangabandhu) was taken to the court at that time, he comes, stands and sits when he was asked to do those,” she said quoting the book.
The prime minister that after appearing in the court the Father of the Nation used to utter by standing “Joy Bangladesh”. “Whatever you like you do with me … I did whatever I should do, meaning that Bangladesh must be liberated,” she quoted Bangabandhu, saying that “I didn’t get anything its beyond in 1971.”
In this connection, Sheikh Hasina said: “We’re trying to recover something from there (Pakistan).”
She said the Father of the Nation never told the plight of his prison life in Pakistan. “Whatever we knew were after reading from his books,” she said.
The premier said though many information were gleaned from his three books — Bangabandhu’s Asamapata Atmajiboni, Karagarer Rojnamcha and Amar Dekha Naya China –, no information about his prison life in 1971 was received.
Sheikh Hasina said her sister Sheikh Rehana asked the father about this as she was little at that time which “we dared do.” “Few days ago, I asked Rehana that did you listen to anything about it,” she said.
“Rehana said quoting Bangabandhu you need not to listen it. If you hear it, you can’t tolerate,” the premier said.
Sheikh Hasina said she collected the “declassified reports” of the US State Department where the Bangladesh issue from 1965 to 1977 was placed.
The prime minister said she is printing out the report from the computer hard disc during this corona time and looking into the matter that whether any information about Bangabandhu’s prison life in Pakistan is gotten.
Sheikh Hasina said ill efforts were made after 1975 to erase the name of Father of the Nation from the history.
“His contributions to the language movement was wiped out and many intellectuals of our country forgot to mention it in their writings,” she said.
The PM said Bangabandhu inspired the nation in independence and took steps one after another for the welfare of the deprived and repressed people.
“The freedom-loving people liberated the country by taking arms responding to his call,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said after the liberation, he made overall development of the country by re-building the war-ravaged nation.
“But the wheels of the country’s uplift were halted through the killing of Bangabandhu in 1975. He was not only killed, efforts were also made to erase his name from the history by carrying out propaganda,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the people of the country were able to real history of the nation when the Awami League government assumed office after long 21 years.
“We started publishing the intelligence reports of the Pakistan government so that the people could know real history of the nation,” she said.
The prime minister said five volumes out of 15 of the report have already been published. “It’s very much necessary to know the actual history if any nation wants to move keeping its head high,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina in this connection expressed gratitude to the people for electing the Awami League government for the third consecutive term.
“We’ve been able to keep up the development spree in the country as the people elected us for the third consecutive term … many things happen if changes are made in the middle, and we had seen it in the country after 2001,” she said.
