India, Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh Liberation & Pakistan

Sashanka S Banerjee, the author of this book and retired Indian diplomat, was deeply involved with some of the leading figures of the Bangladesh Liberation Struggle. Starting with his first contact with Bangladesh's founding father, Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, in the early 60s, he persuaded Mujib to not only agree a Parliamentary system of Government based on the principles of secularism, but also to appoint Justice Abu Sayeed Choudhury, with whom Banerjee had a strong working relationship, as the first President of Bangladesh. Mujib and Banerjee even jointly sang and informally agreed the national anthem of Bangladesh on a historic flight they shared from London to Dhaka, via Delhi, shortly after the end of the 1971 Bangladesh War.In this first publication of these critical, behind-the-scenes, events, Sashanka Banerjee also recounts a chilling encounter with Mujib's future assassins, General Ziaur Rahman and Colonel Farook Rahman. In spite of Banerjee's repeated warnings to Mujib to take heightened precautions, Mujib's fondness for his compatriots resulted in his untimely and violent death, and triggered a long souring of the relationship between Bangladesh and India, at the hands of Pakistan. With the return to power of Mujib's daughter, Shaikh Hasina, Bangladesh has rediscovered its original path of secular democracy and economic development, whilst ensuring the horrific war crimes of the mass rape and murder of over a million Bangladeshis by Pakistan's soldiers are finally aired and justice brought to bear.This unique insider's account of the Bangladesh Liberation Struggle not only reads like a gripping thriller, it also sets out the historical context of the dawn of Islamic extremism and terrorism emanating from Pakistan. The loss of almost a half of its original territory was a body blow to the psyche of Pakistan's Punjabi-dominated military rulers. Fearing further losses to the other ethno-national groups of the Balochis, Pashtuns and Sindhis, the Pakistan military embarked on a self-destructive strategy of the wholesale radicalisation to extreme Islam to serve as Pakistan's new national identity. The Army helped establish Madrassas, and created and sponsored a host of extremist terrorist groups, from Lashkar e Tayyaba, to the Haqqani Network and the Taliban itself. It engaged in a proxy war of revenge not only against India, but against Afghanistan, and most strikingly against the West, through its close affiliation and protection of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.The Bangladesh story not only helps to explain the context in which Pakistan embarked on this strategy, it also has within it the kernel of its resolution. The ethnic Bengalis of East Pakistan led by example and chose to fight their way from the oppression and economic stranglehold of Pakistan. Mujib offered to help his fellow ethno-national groups to throw off the shackles of exploitation immediately after Bangladesh secured its own independence. At that time, however, the people of Baluchistan, NWFP, and Sind were not able to rally to his call, and emulate the bravery of the Bengalis.