More on "Flashback: Zia that I knew"

Thanks to Mr. Chowdhury for his clarifying remarks that the write-up was his own as an ex-Army officer and was based on his own recollection of those days as he saw Maj. Zia. I assumed that he had merely posted the piece from an ex-officer while protecting the identity of the author. I was mistaken. My salutation to him for being a freedom fighter. Without the sacrifice of people like him, we probably won't have seen the independence of Bangladesh. May Allah reward him.

As far as Major Rafiq is concerned, when he wrote the book "A Tale of Millions", he was not affiliated with any political party. So, I would like to believe that his original version was a non-partisan account. If the book has since gone through revisions on the content, it is possible that changes, if any, may reflect his partisanship of the time. And that would be unfortunate.

No one should contradict the fact that Maj. Ziaur Rahman had read a statement from Chittagong Radio in late March that said that he had declared independence on behalf of Sk. Mujib. I heard it myself along with many residents of Chittagong. I strongly doubt Capt. Oli's version that he or Lt. Shamsher M. Chowdhury had drafted the statement. As I maintain, many of us living in the Nasirabad-Sholoshahar area also saw a print copy of Sk. Mujib's declaration of independence the day after March 25 military crackdown in Dhaka. Why should Sk. Mujib challenge Zia on the matter of declaration from Kalurghat station when it was a fact and not rumor? Was not he the same person who had promoted Zia to become the Deputy Army Chief? Nor should we forget here that Major Zia was reluctant to accept his wife after the war had ended, but it was Sk. Mujib who as a fatherly figure convinced him to do so. It is irony of fate that Mrs. Zia would later celebrate her fake birthday on the day Mujib was murdered. She has been accused of trying to distort history. Politics truly brings the worst in our people.

As to the murder of some 1200 Bengali recruits on the night of March 25 by the Pakistan Army, neither Col. M.R. Chowdhury nor Maj. Zia can escape from being held partially responsible. They failed to warn their rank and file in advance. Unlike Maj. Rafiq, they had full trust in "brotherly love" of Pakistani folks for which blunder many innocent Bangladeshi soldiers were slaughtered.

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