Rezaul Karim: My tributes
Among the Bangladesh Foreign Service officers, he has probably served as Ambassador to the largest number of countries. He returned to the diplomatic arena recently after long 13 years and went to Cairo as our Ambassador last August. He served in that capacity till his death.
Rezaul Karim was a language movement activist and a valiant freedom fighter. He declared his allegiance to Bangladesh in 1971 and served as the Deputy Chief of Bangladesh Mission in London. After the liberation of Bangladesh, Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, who was heading the London Mission during the liberation war, returned to Bangladesh leaving him in charge.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The high point in his career came on 8 January 1971 when he was called to London Heathrow airport to receive Bangabandhu on his release from captivity in Pakistan. It was a defining moment in our national history. Rezaul Karim has given a graphic account of that memorable day in his latest books. It was Rezaul Karim who first apprised Bangabandhu about our War of Independence.
Soon thereafter, he was called to Dhaka to Head the European Division in the Foreign Ministry. During the initial years of our independence, he played an active role in obtaining recognition of Bangladesh by other countries, as well as in Bangladesh's joining various international organisations. Subsequently, he was sent to establish our Mission in Saudi Arabia and later became our Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi. His first Ambassadorial assignment was to Sri Lanka in 1978.
I first came in contact with Rezaul Karim in 1971. At that time, along with my senior Bangali colleagues, I had left Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC, declared our allegiance to Bangladesh, and opened the Bangladesh Mission. We used to keep in touch with him in London. However, I met him for the first time in 1974 when I came to Dhaka from Washington DC on home leave.
He was always elegantly dressed, and very professional. He was kind and affectionate to his junior colleagues and was always generous with us. In 1979, on a trip to Dhaka from Colombo, he and Salma Bhabi took ten mid-level Foreign Service officers, and their wives, to a theatre in Bailey Road to see the play 'Sajano Bagan.'We thoroughly appreciated this kind gesture.
When I was posted in Bangladesh Mission to the UN in early eighties, he came on a visit to New York from Baghdad where he was our Ambassador. He had served in New York in the sixties. As usual, Rezaul Karim took all the officers and their wives for a sumptuous dinner at an expensive seafood restaurant on the New York wharf.
He also visited me in Jeddah where I was Consul General in late eighties. The Consulate General was still in the same building that he had rented in 1975. Many Saudi officials that I came in contact with still warmly remembered him.
Before I left on my ambassadorial assignment to Iran in mid-nineties, Rezaul Karim and Salma Bhabi hosted a farewell luncheon for my wife and me. He invited all our colleagues who had earlier served in Iran. He briefed me in detail about life in Iran and also emphasised the need for strengthening bilateral ties with Iran. He specifically mentioned that I should try to arrange a visit to Bangladesh by the Iranian President and also work for the establishment of direct air links between the two capitals.
He had a rich collection of books and antiques. After the lunch, he showed us his well-known collection of walking sticks from different parts of the world. These sticks were systematically numbered and arranged with brief description of each of them. This surely inspired my wife Tuhfa to intensify her own collection of walking sticks.
Rezaul Karim was posted in Tehran in late eighties and we were indeed happy to see how fondly the Iranian people remembered him and Salma Bhabi.
Within months of my arrival in Tehran, it was possible to arrange the first-ever visit by an Iranian President to Bangladesh. President Rafsanjani's visit to Bangladesh in November 1995 ushered in new era of bilateral cooperation including the agreement on setting up of the second oil refinery in Chittagong. Bangladesh also took advantage of that historic visit to establish air links between Tehran and Dhaka by Iran Air. Rezaul Karim was very happy at these positive developments.
After retirement from government service, Rezaul Karim actively joined politics and was a member of the Advisory Council of the BNP. He was so proud of his role in the liberation war and his attachment to Bangabandhu that many of his friends and well wishers believe that he had joined the wrong political party.
He was also the President of Bangladesh Commonwealth Society, and Chairman of PKSF (Palli Kormo-Sahayak Foundation), Presidents of Swanirvor Bangladesh and Kushtia District Association and many other social organisations. He was also a member of International Observer Groups, which monitored elections in Sri Lanka, Cameroon and Pakistan.
Last February, Rezaul Karim telephoned me to inform that two of his latest books, 'Kutniteker Abhigotta"and "Kutinitiker Diary", were being launched at the Ekushe Book Fair at Bangla Academy on that day. He wanted me to read the books, which were basically autobiographical, about his experiences in various capitals. He thought that I might find them interesting as I too had served in many of those stations, such as New Delhi, New York, Jeddah, and Tehran. I went to the book fair, bought the books and read them with keen interest.
My last encounter with him was last March when one of our local Bangla satellite TV channels had invited him and me to take part in their programme entitled "Probashe Muktijuddho" to narrate our experiences in London and Washington DC, respectively, in 1971.
I was quite surprised to learn, while I was in the US on a visit, that Rezaul Karim was going to Cairo as our Ambassador after so many years of retirement. He left for Cairo before I returned to Dhaka.
In his death, the country has lost a capable diplomat, a sound administrator and a dedicated public servant. At the personal level, Rezaul Karim was a caring eldest brother (his youngest brother told us before his namaz-e-janaza, how he took care of them when their father had passed away), a loving husband, an affectionate father and grandfather. He was a deep patriot and we were told at his Qul Khwani how he had gifted his personal house in Kushtia to his district Association.
I pay my tributes to this kind and sympathetic senior colleague and pray for the salvation of his departed soul. May Allah give Salma Bhabi, and their children and grand children the strength to bear this irreparable loss. Amen.