Passing away of an icon

The tribute you paid to the late Enayetullah Khan published in the front page of The Daily Star of November 11 is a masterpiece by any standard. I do not know if there is anyone in Bangladesh who could describe more eloquently and at the same time more truthfully the late Enayetullah Khan Mintoo as you have done. And this you have done in no time after his death as an instinctive and instantaneous reaction. Your words came from your heart and they went deep into our hearts.

Although you had political and ideological differences (known to those who knew you both and who read your articles and editorials), I wonder how you could rise above all the differences to give Mintoo what he earned through a long struggle and deserved as a matter of right. It is a pity that Enayetullah Khan will never read what you wrote in your daily and not hear what you said in the NTV interview.

In a country where our leaders could not rise above small mindedness on matters of national interest you have fully upheld the rights of the person who consciously disagreed with you as a matter of choice.

I hope people will learn how to respect someone who deserves respect, how to honour an honourable person.

I am sure many more people will write about the late Enayetullah Khan. I doubt, however, if anyone can match your truthfulness, eloquence, and objectivity.

Mr. Enayetullah Khan the Journalist hardly knew me. Yet I was deeply bereaved at his sad demise. In the early sixties we used to live in Dhanmondi and our telephone number was 2776 and their's 2775. There would be some misconnections and wrong calls sometimes- quite interesting. I met him first at my cousin's residence in Dhanmondi in a birthday party in the mid-sixties. Our uncle and late Justice Jabbar Khan studied law together and practised in Barisal in pre-partition days, to where both of them belonged. Dhaka was a small town then. I was highly impressed by Enayetullah Khan's personality, eloquence, knowledge, and started liking him- his way of talking, making a point, his confidence. I was accorded the opportunity of visiting the national Assembly session of the then Pakistan at Dhaka through the courtesy of Enayetullah Khan, He provided me with a visitor's pass from the speaker's quota. I am ever grateful to him for that visitor's pass. The good impressions are still imprinted in my mind. I met him last at a wedding party where he was receiving guests as the 'kannapaksha'. He looked sick and a bit emaciated.

Being an avid reader I subscribed to 'Holiday' regularly in pre and also post-liberation days. I would remember him as somebody who used to write very difficult English, a good suave journalist, an excellent and critical political analyst, as somebody who crossed swords many times with the establishment, as somebody who loved to remain in controversy and gossip.

Dr. Syed Nasrullah, Dhaka