Bangabandhu comes home, completes victory

GBNEWS24DESK//

It was the British Royal Air Force comet jet that, on January 10, 1972, carried Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to his freed motherland — the country he had led to independence.

People had been in a state of euphoria since the Pakistani forces surrendered on December 16, 1971.

However, a sense of incompleteness prevailed as the undisputed leader of liberation, Bangabandhu, was not there with them yet.

Sheikh Mujib was kept in solitary confinement in Pakistan since the Liberation War began on March 26. Even after defeat, Pakistani authorities were delaying his release, stoking tension and uncertainty among the people of the world about his fate.

But on this day 51 years ago, there he was, clad in an overcoat, emerging out of the plane around 1:44pm.

How much his arrival meant to the country was evident when people even went on to breach security arrangements to be close to their beloved leader.

Even just on the staircase, Mujib was surrounded with love and embraces from his people.

As he waved his hand, claps and shouts of “Joy Bangla” rose high into the air. Most who were present there had their eyes brimming with tears – the man who freed them stood right before them.

As the president of the newly born state, Mujib was given a 21-cannon salute and a guard of honour.

“The scene, even from the air was totally overwhelming. There was an ocean of human heads …,” Dr Kamal Hossain, eminent jurist and politician, wrote in his book titled “Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice”.

Kamal was also jailed in Pakistan and accompanied Bangabandhu from there to Dhaka via London and Delhi.

In his book, he further remembered how on December 26, Bangabandhu was brought to a police academy in Shihala, not far from Pakistan’s Rawalpindi.

When Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the then president of Pakistan, visited him, Bangabandhu asked if he (Bhutto) was also detained.

In response, Bhutto proudly said he had come there as the president of Pakistan.

To that, Mujib retorted with laughter. “How did you become the president after I secured twice as many seats as you in the National Assembly?”

A clearly embarrassed Bhutto responded by saying Bangabandhu could become the president if he wished to.