Recalling the hero's home-coming

Emotion ran high among the stranded Bengalee community in Islamabad. Many questions were haunting their fragile mind. Was Sheikh Mujib alive? Did the humiliated Pakistani military leaders took revenge by executing him already? If he was alive would he be allowed to travel to the land he struggled throughout his life to liberate? Those were the most anxious moments until one foggy morning in January 1972 when a Radio Pakistan special bulletin removed the heavy blanket from every heart. During the almost year-long struggle for freedom in East Pakistan that was the only news item that the listeners believed to be true. The broadcast said Sheikh Mujib had left Pakistan on a special PIA flight that morning. The day was 8 January 1972. That was the other day that the captive souls in Islamabad cherished to the brim after 16 December 1971.

The occasion called for distribution of sweets, rejoice and thanksgiving. But no! With one hundred thousand prisoners-of-war at the hands of Bangladesh-India Joint Command in the Eastern Front , every Pakistani home was either seething in anger or was in mourning. Like proverbial "clusters of bamboos in the storm", Bengalees thought it was wise to bend low to allow the raging storm to pass without harming their heads. Radio Pakistan broadcast did not mention the destination of Sheikh Mujib or the PIA flight. New Delhi occupied the centre piece of all speculations. Anxious mind and nervous fingers were moving from one broadcasting station to another to find out direction of the most precious cargo on board the flight.

Time was hanging heavy. Minute seemed to be hour and hour a day. But then to hear the roaring tiger on BBC, "Today I am free to share the unbounded joy of freedom with my fellow countrymen. We have earned our freedom in an epic struggle. The ultimate achievement of the struggle is the creation of the independent, sovereign Bangladesh." Bangabandhu had landed at Heathrow Airport and was addressing the world press in London. Because of time difference of about five hours between Islamabad and London it was still morning hours of 8 January in London. The other captive who flew into freedom with him was his constitutional expert young Dr.Kamal Hossain . The two were brought together before boarding the PIA flight at Rawalpindi after nine months of solitary confinement at different locations.

Bagabandhu reached the safest place and the worst was over. His fellow countrymen at home and abroad were blessed to know that he was alive so long, but under what conditions of life? In his opening statement to the press he said of it, "My people have declared me President while I was a prisoner in a condemned cell awaiting the execution of a sentence of hanging." People of Bangladesh [East Pakistanis were officially called from 1972] ignoring biting Islamabad cold clustered around radio sets to swallow what their leader was saying in London. Equally eager was the world to hear what the leader of the newly created State would say. His live voice on BBC and other world media came on to say, "I would like to thank all those freedom-loving states who have supported our national liberation struggle." But the statesman restrained from condemning those countries and leaders who opposed the liberation war of Bangladesh and actively abetted Pakistani military junta with weapons to kill three million people.

Instead he said, "I now appeal to all states to extend recognition to the People's Republic of Bangladesh, to enter into diplomatic relations with and to support her immediate admission to the United Nations."

Life long struggle to realise what was due to his people, preparing them for ultimate fight through his historic declaration of 7th March 1971, "the struggle this time is the struggle for emancipation , the struggle this time is the struggle for Independence" and brash with death awaiting execution turned Sheikh Mujib into a messiah for his people. It was he who could only afford to state in an unambiguous term to the friends and foes of the new state, "I re-assert that the existence of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is an unchallengeable reality and that our future relations with any state must be based on this fundamental reality."

Bangabandhu was still far away from liberated soil and was getting impatient to leave London. Instead of a waiting Air India flight, he preferred a special aircraft offered by the British government and left London on 9 January 1972. He made a stop-over at the Palam Airport in New Delhi. For, in his words, "This is the least I could do to pay a personal tribute to the best friends of my people -- the people of India and to your government under the leadership of your magnificent Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi who is not only a leader of men , but also of mankind. You all have worked so untiringly and sacrificed so gallantly in making this journey possible. This is a journey from darkness to light, from captivity to freedom, from desolation to hope.

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And on 10 January 1972 his Odyssey was over. The father of the nation embraced the blood soaked liberated soil of the country of his life-long dream which accorded him a mammoth hero's welcome in the shining Dhaka afternoon.

Former Ambassador M.Shafiullah was stranded in Islamabad and returned home in mid-1972.