Eminent journalist and writer Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury has said that late General Ziaur Rahman would have divorced Khaleda Zia after the Independence War, but could not do so because of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Speaking on Friday (May 12) as chief guest at the launching of the book “Muktijuddho: Ajana Addhya” (Liberation War: The Untold Story) by eminent journalist Nadeem Qadir, Gaffar Chowdhury said, “when Khaleda Zia repeatedly refused to leave Dhaka Cantonment under Pakistani army control, General Zia told me once the war ends I will divorce her.”
“He, however, could not do so as Bangabandhu intervened,” he added while commenting Zia’s initial reaction on the war mentioned in the book, the second edition of which was published in this year’s Ekushey Boi Mela.
Gaffar said he had spent sometime in the same room with General Zia during the war and he was amused to see him take one-hour to fix his hair and always ordering around.
Writer Nadeem Qadir, currently Minister (Press) in the Bangladesh High Commission, London, quoted his mother late Hasna Hena Qadir as saying that General Zia told his martyred father, Lt. Col. M. Abdul Qadir, ahead of the war that “there is no guarantee Bangladesh will become independent…… I am not with you.”
On the book, Gaffar Chowdhury said it was an important “personal-political” one with non-biased facts. “It is a good example and more people should follow Nadeem.”
“It is also praise-worthy to note the allegiance Nadeem has shown to Bangabandhu and his family,” he added.
The book, published by Jagriti Prokashoni, gives a detail of the 36-year-old search by the author for the grave of his father. He found the grave in 2007 and Col. Qadir’s remains were re-buried with full state and military honours in 2011 in Natore district’s Qadirabad Cantonment on orders of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The Cantonment is named after the martyred intellectual Col. Qadir.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to UK M. Nazmul Quaunine, vetrean British-Bangladeshi Journalist Ishaq Kajol, Syed Badrul Ahsan, associate editor of the Asian Age newspaper, the present and past presidents of the London-Bangla Press Club Syed Nahas Pasha and Nobab Uddin spoke on the occasion. The auditorium of the East London’s Micro-Business Centre was crowded with eminent personalities, community leaders, journalists and students.
High Commissioner Nazmul Quaunine said Nadeem has set an example for other children as far as their responsibility lies with their parents. “Everybody should follow him and there should be more books like this.”
Syed Badrul Ahsan said, it is a non-partisan book of the Liberation War as seen by the author and account of joy or pain that he had experienced.
Ishaq Kajol said the book is invaluable as it carries many new information that carries me to the days of 1971. “Nadeem, I think, has been able to uphold the sacrifice his father has made for Bangladesh.”
Authour of the book, Nadeem Qadir said it was his mother’s love for his father that took him to the 36-year search for the grave or whereabouts. “Sometimes there was hope and then it was frustrating … but I did not give up.” “I wish my mother, who passed away in 1999, was alive when I found the grave.”
