‘Indian army saved Hasina, her family in 1971 war’

Online Desk :    India’s leading business newspaper The Economic Times on Wednesday reported that prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her family were saved by a group of Indian soldiers during the 1971 liberation war, quoting the premier father’s close aide said as the country marked the 45th Victory Day.
The report added says Hazi Golam Morshed, one of the top aides of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, recalled that he escorted the four-man squad of Indian soldiers to the house where Bangabandhu’s wife Begum Fazilatunnesa was imprisoned along with Hasina and three other children.
The report added that Hazi Golam Morshed, one of the top aides of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, recalled that he helped the four-man squad of Indian soldiers enter the house where Bangabandhu’s wife Begum Fazilatunnesa was imprisoned along with Hasina and three other children.
The economic daily says the Indian squad was led by Major Ashok Tara, whom Bangladesh honoured conferring him with the “Friend of Bangladesh” award two years ago.
”The Pakistani soldiers guarding the house looked frightened but arrogant…visibly they were unaware of the surrender (of Pakistan) even on that morning of December 17,” Morshed, who is now 85, quoted to have said to the daily.
”Major Tara approached the (Pakistani) soldiers unrmed… One of the guards shouted, asking him not to proceed a single step further if he wanted to avoid being shot,” he recalled.
The report further said Morshed described the subsequent few minutes to be highly “delicate” as it appeared that the “frustrated, frightened and directionless” Pakistani guards were going to kill the Bangabandhu family.
Morshed happened to be the last man to accompany Bangabandhu until the Pakistani troops on March 25, 1971 night and arrested him, it says.
On his release, he found out that Bangabandhu’s family was detained at a house heavily guarded by the Pakistani troops. On December 17, he went to makeshift camp at the Circuit House in Kakrail to inform the Indian forces about it, Morshed told the economic daily.
An Indian major general introduced him to Major Tara and then entrusted him with the task of rescuing the Bangabandhu family, he also told the daily.
The report added that when Major Tara reached the house he told the Pakistani troops that their army had surrendered as they were not aware about the development due to disruption of communication.
”And as soon as I entered the house, (Bangabandhu) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s wife hugged me and said ‘I was her son sent by God from the heaven (to save the family)’,” Tara said in an earlier interview.