Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Shaheed Ziaur Rahman

However, I would differ with Mr. Kabir on his remark "…. had there been no Shaheed Ziaur Rahman there had been no proclamation of war". It was not as if Ziaur Rahman had decided on his own to proclaim independence.

Here I would like to mention about the unacknowledged heroes of Bangladesh who are yet to get any state recognition. Their only 'crime' was they neither belonged to AL nor later joined BNP, but were leftist freedom fighters. A lot has been argued over the years as to who proclaimed independence first, i.e., Abdul Hannan (an AL activist of Chittagong) or Major Zia. Nobody cared a hoot about who actually had set up the transmitter at Kalurghat and how the above two persons came into the scene. Had there been no transmitter, there would have been no proclamation of independence !

The real hero is Belal Mohammad (and his team), a leftist activist and an employee of Radio Pakistan, Chittagong, who had actually mastered the removal of a transmitter and installed it in a house at Kalurghat to start "Shadhin Bangla Betar". To give credibility to the freedom movement, he invited Abdul Hannan (an AL leader) to read out a declaration of independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman but the transmission being weak was not heard by many. The next day Belal Mohammad went to seek the assistance of Bengali army officers who were on duty nearby, to give momentum to the freedom struggle. Major Zia was present at that time and was invited to visit Kalurghat Transmission Centre. Belal Mohammad explained about their mission regarding declaring independence, and the same declaration was read out by Major Zia,the rest is history. The details have been narrated in Belal Mohammad's book 'Shadhin Bangla Betar' (a must read for everyone).

Coming back to the main point, had there been no Major Zia, some other army officer would have been lucky to have read out the declaration.

Belal Mohammad is one such person who never bothered about his recognition or publicity but had fought the war with his team as patriots. It is my appeal to Daily Star readers to please seek out Belal Mohammad from wherever he may be and help in giving him the due state recognition, which he deserves, as a great freedom fighter.