Only a few days after the marauding Pakistan forces’ humiliating defeat in the Eastern War Theatre and the surrender ceremony of the occupation troops at Dhaka on 16 December 1971, Bangladesh’s government-in-exile, as well as the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, remained worried about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman freedom. He was languishing in a historical Mianwali Jail in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
It could be a sleepless night for Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, if the Pakistan army carried out the death sentence and left Bangladesh an orphaned state.
The crucial issue was whether Mujib be set free as a matter of political expediency although he was under a sentence of death by hanging in a Military Court in Pakistan?
Pakistan’s president hopeful, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was in New York attending a heated UN Security Council meeting, had to air dash to Rawalpindi after he was informed by General Yahya Khan that he had resigned from his office as president of Pakistan and military commander.
Bhutto had been appointed as the chief martial law administrator of Pakistan.
Indira Gandhi received a secret message that the Rawalpindi flight carrying Bhutto was scheduled for a stopover at London’s Heathrow Airport. The Indian PM hurriedly called a meeting of the war cabinet at her South Block office in New Delhi to discuss Bhutto’s journey home. She wanted a reliable point person who would be present for Bhutto’s arrival at Heathrow, so she could receive an intelligence feed.
India desperately wanted to learn what Bhutto was thinking – whether he would release Sheikh Mujib and enable him to return home or carry out the Pakistan military court’s verdict on the death penalty.
The meeting was attended by Durga Prasad Dhar, Head of Policy Planning in the Ministry of External Affairs; Ram Nath Kao, chief of RAW; PN Haksar, the prime minister’s principal secretary; and TN Kaul, the foreign secretary.
A plan was drawn, with no guarantee of acquiring the vital intelligence of the fate of Sheikh Mujib. Incidentally, the highest ranked Pakistani bureaucrat, Muzaffar Hussain, who was former chief secretary of the Government of East Pakistan was posted in Dhaka in 1971. The senior Pakistan Civil Service (PCS) bureaucrat became a prisoner of war (POW) along with 93,000 militaries, other combatants, civil officers, and their families.
Hussain was staying as a VIP guest at the official residence of DP Dhar. On the other hand, his wife, Laila Hussain, who was visiting London was stranded when the war broke out on 3rd December and unable to return to Dhaka.
Both husband (in Delhi) and wife (in London) were communicating with each other through diplomatic channels.
Sashanka S Banerjee, an Indian diplomat was stationed in the Indian High Commission in London.
Fortunately, he befriended Laila Hussain, after delivering a sealed official cover informing that her husband Muzaffar Hussain was well looked after and was lodged in a secured place.
Indira had information that Laila and Bhutto were good friends. Thus, the South Block decided to play a one-off diplomatic “summit” at the VIP lounge, the Alcock and Brown Suite, at Heathrow airport.
Banerjee persuaded Laila to meet Bhutto at the airport lounge and asked him if he could help in getting her husband released from Delhi.
The two friends, Laila and Bhutto, met at Heathrow Airport. The meet and greet turned out to be a historic diplomatic thriller.
Bhutto responded to Laila’s emotional appeal for help in securing the release of her husband from Indian custody. He pulled her aside and whispered to Laila a very sensitive secret message for the Indian Prime Minister, writes Banerjee in his memoir “India, Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh Liberation”.
“Laila, I know what you want. I can imagine you are [carrying a request] from Mrs Indira Gandhi. Please pass a message to her, that after I take charge of [the] office back home, I will shortly thereafter release Mujibur Rahman, allowing him to return home. What I want in return, I will let Mrs Indira Gandhi know through another channel. You may now go.”
The Indian High Commission in London urgently shot out a priority message to the South Block, based on Laila’s encounter with Bhutto. Indira Gandhi was excited that Bhutto had sent out a positive message.
Meanwhile, within hours, a diplomatic message also came from Islamabad confirming the authenticity of Laila’s report. Many channels were opened by India’s Security Services positioning listening posts all over the key centres of power in the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
Bangladesh leaders immediately received a top-secret message from the South Block regarding the release of Sheikh Mujib – the architect of Bangladesh’s independence would first land in London and then fly to Dhaka via Delhi.
Bhutto dared to overrule the death sentence handed out by a military court in Rawalpindi and released Mujib on 8 January 1972 under the orders of Zulfiqar Bhutto amidst intense international pressure.
On 10 January 1972, the triumphant return of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the independence hero to a war-ravaged homeland – but to an independent Bangladesh.
Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, and recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter @saleemsamad
