French were more likely to be moved by pressure on their packet book than on political grounds.
As indicated earlier, I was in Oxford when the news of the surrender of the Pakistan army on 16 December came through. I had earlier in the year been awarded a fellowship by Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, which was Quite helpful in supporting my family in Oxford. I had myself done very little academic work in the service of this fellowship, having spent my entire time in the service of the Bangladesh liberation struggle. I therefore gave some thought to staying on in Oxford with my family and using the fellowship to write a book on the background and leading to the liberation of Bangladesh. However the sense of exhilaration and anticipation of the dawn which had been ushered for Bangladesh on its liberation made it inconceivable for me to stay back. I therefore set off home for Bangladesh via Calcutta since as no flights were going into Dhaka.
In to Calcuua I met up with Prof. Mosharaf Hossain, Dr. swadesh Bose and Dr. Anisuzzaman who had in the last months been much more active in drawing up policy papers on the rehabilitation of refugees and reconstruction of the war devastated economy of Bangladesh.
Mosharaf had already been into Dhaka with the Bangladesh Cabinet and had come back to organize the return of his family. On 31st December , Mosharaf and myself, in the company of Mr. Qamruzzaman and his family and Begum Zohra Tajuddin and her family, flew into Dhaka airport in an ancient DC-3 of the Indian Airforce. We were met at airport by Tajuddin Ahmed, the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh. I had last seen him in April in those critical days when I had drafted his historic statement to the world. It was a cold winter's morning but the sun was shining. At that stage it seemed to us that the new year held out promise for a new world of hope and opportunity for the long deprived and war devastated people of Bangladesh.
ডিসেম্বর, ৮৩
শাহ জাহাঙ্গীর কবীর
আমার নির্বাচনী এলাকা ছিল রংপুর জেলার গাইবান্ধা মহকুমার গবিন্দগঞ্জ থানা। আমি ৪ঠা এপ্রিল ১৯৭১ সাল পর্যন্ত রংপুর কারমাইকেল কলেজ ক্যাম্পাসে অবস্থান করেছি। এরপর পলাতক অবস্থায় রংপুর ও বগুড়ার বিভিন্ন গ্রামে ঘুরে বেড়িয়েছি। আমি ভারতে যাইনি।
আমার এলাকার ক্ষতিগ্রস্থ অঞ্চলগুলোর মাঝে সাইপাল, সাঁতারপাড়া, কাঁটাখালী, প্রভৃতি উল্লেখযোগ্য। মহিমাগঞ্জ নামক বিখ্যাত বন্দর এলাকাটি ভীষণভাবে ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত হয়েছিল। এখানকা বিভিন্ন পাটের গুদাম পুড়িয়ে দেয়া হয়েছিল।
কাঁটাখালী ব্রীজের কাছে ছিলো পাক বাহিনীর ক্যাম্প। সেখান থেকে তারা বিভিন্ন গ্রামে গিয়ে লোকজন ধরে এনে হত্যা করতো। আমার এলাকায় প্রায় এক থেকে দেড় হাজার লোককে হত্যা করা হয়েছিল। ছাত্রনেতা
