Independence Day Revives Dark Memory

BBC News, Chittagong Bangladesh

March 26th, 2006

By Alastair Lawson

For one avid BBC World Service listener in Chittagong, Bangladesh, this Sunday's 35th Independence Day celebrations carry vivid memories.

Hashim Enyatullah, who is 75, says he was imprisoned by the Pakistanis, subjected to a 12-hour gruelling interrogation and denied food and water all because he was caught listening to the BBC as the independence struggle reached its climax.

"The intelligence agencies brought me in for questioning because they said that the BBC was giving unfair and subversive coverage of the war," Mr Enyatullah told me from his home in the southern port town of Chittagong.

Thousands of Bengalis died in the struggle for independence, which was finally won in December 1971. Bangladesh was created out of the former East Pakistan.

"They interrogated me for 24 hours in my cell, denied me any sustenance and warned me that if I repeated the offence I would be severely punished," he said.

Mr Enyatullah said he has listened to the BBC World Service since 1951, when he joined the merchant navy and was posted to Karachi.

He said: "In those days all the Bengali community in what was then West Pakistan listened to the BBC, because it was one of the few impartial and accurate sources of news.

"But as the independence war in East Pakistan hotted up towards the end of 1971, the authorities in Karachi did not allow to tune in.

"I was arrested by naval intelligence and asked by interrogators to explain why I was listening to a foreign news channel which was prone to exaggeration and distorted the news.

"I was under heavy mental torture."

Mr Enyatullah said he was only released on condition he did not complain of his treatment to the Red Cross. He was forbidden by the intelligence services from leaving the naval camp where he was interned for two months.

He said: "I will always be grateful to the BBC because at a time of crisis and upheaval people like [BBC correspondent] Mark Tully kept the world aware of the suffering of the Bangladeshi people.

"Today, with Bangladesh under threat from terrorists and political instability, I believe that the role of the BBC is as necessary and as indispensable as ever."

The Bangladesh government says hundreds of thousands of people were killed, raped or wounded by Pakistani forces during the independence struggle.

Pakistan has disputed the figures, but in 2002 President Musharraf expressed "regret" for any suffering that may have been inflicted.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4832164.stm

Published: 2006/03/26 00:31:54 GMT

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