Awami league MPs, student and workers from the districts of Chittagong, Noakhali and Comilla. It appeared that M.R. Siddiqui and Thakur were flying that evening to Delhi with the Chief Minister of Tripura to put the facts of the genocide before the Indian government and to request help so that the resistance could be sustained. I learnt from Siddiqui that he had no knowledge whether other AL leaders were alive or their whereabouts. He himself had been involved in organizing resistance at Chittagong and had only just come over to Tripura to seek Military assistance to enable the defense of Chittagong to survive.
At the meeting with Siddiqui and Thakur, it appeared that they themselves knew few people of consequence in Delhi. They felt that the contacts which Anis and Myself had with some eminent Indian economist might help in securing an effective hearing for the Bangladesh cause. We were therefore persuaded to join M.R. Siddiqui on the flight to Delhi that same evening. To do so we had to be fitted out in borrowed Punjabi and pyjamas which were the only assets we carried with us on the flight from Agatala to Delhi.
On linding in Delhi on the night of 31 March 1971, Anis and I phoned Amartya sen who was at that time Professor at the Delhi school of Economics. He and his wife came over immediately and took us to their house in the Delhi University campuse. The next morning Prof. Sen took us to the residence of Dr. Ashok mitra now Finance Minister in the CPM government in West Bengal, but who was then Ecomic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, Government of Indian. Dr. Mitra immediately invited Prof. P.N. Dhar, another well-known economists to come over. Prof. Dhar was then Secretary to the Prime Minister of India. To Prof. Dhar, Anis and myself provided a full narrative, as best know to us, of the background to the genocide, the accounts of the massacres in Dhaka and state of the resistance by the people of Bangladesh. Prof. Dhar took us Mr. P.N. Hasker, then Principle secretary to the Prime Minister, to whom we repeated our narrative.
We are not sure if this was the first full account of the background to the liberation war which had been communicated to the upper reaches of the Government of India. It appears that round about the times that we reached Delhi. Tajuddin Ahmed, accompanied by Barister Ameerul Islam had also reached Delhi and established amore authoritative basis for communication with the Government of India. I was put in touch with Mr. Tajuddin Ahmed shortly after my arrival. He told me that he himself had no knowledge about which of his collegues was alive. He told me how Ameerul Islam, Dr. kamal hossain and himself had gone to the residence of Bangabandhu on the night of 25th March, after the reports of imminent army movement had come in and had tried to persuade him to accompany them to a more secure place. But Bangladesh had refused to accompany them and advised them to go underground. Tajuddin and Islam had then parted company with kamal hossain, who had gone to a hideaway in Dhanmondi, after which they had lost contact. Tajuddin and Islam had subsequently made their way across the border via Kustia.
Whilist we were together in Delhi we were deeply distributed to hear over the radio that Dr. kamal hossain had just been captured up by the Pakistan army. However by then we
