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The Tale of Homecoming

নবম-দশম শ্রেণি (মাধ্যমিক) - English for Toady - Unit One: Father of the Nation | NCTB BOOK

B. Read the story of Bangabandhu's homecoming to answer the questions that follow.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested by the Pakistani army immediately after his declaration of independence at the first hour of the 26 March 1971. He was taken to Pakistan as a captive and imprisoned there in a small cell for capital punishment until 7th January, 1972. Even a grave was dug in front of his cell but Mujib was fearless. He knew nothing would stop the Bangalees to gain independence. In fact, his name and independence became synonymous. So the whole world was awaiting breathlessly to witness his homecoming. And he had a grand homecoming indeed narrated by eminent columnist and writer, Syed Badrul Ahsan. An abridged version of that narration is presented below.
In the evening of 7 January, 1972; Bangabandhu left Chaklala Airport in Rawalpindi, from where he would fly to London. Nine months earlier he was brought to Pakistan as a prisoner with little hope to return. And now he was free to go home. Pakistan, as soon as the PIA aircraft took off, was finally behind him....

Early in the morning on 8 January 1972, Bangabandhu arrived at Heathrow Airport. News of Bangabandhu's arrival in London spread quickly. Journalists, the general public, British officials and politicians and Bangalee residents in the city made their way to Hotel Claridges. News bulletins on the BBC and other media organizations made note of Bangabandhu's arrival in their headlines. By early afternoon, the Father of the Nation had met the British Prime Minister Edward Heath and the Leader of the opposition Harold Wilson. Then he called Dhaka and for the first time since his arrest by the Pakistan Army in March, spoke to his family. A long conversation then followed with Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad. The conversations with his family and with Tajuddin were emotional affairs, but he now had a clear picture of all that had happened in his absence in Bangladesh. It gave him immense pleasure knowing that he had truly liberated his people.

Bangabandhu's opening words at a crowded news conference that evening at Claridges was a touch poetic. He expressed the unbounded joy of freedom achieved by his people in an epic liberation struggle. Bangladesh, he told the crowd, was a reality and would fulfill its obligations as part of the international community. He made it clear that those who were involved in different types of crimes including genocide would be trialled by his government.

 

E. Read the following texts by the same author that describes Bangabandhu's a few more hours of journey towards home.

Bangabandhu left London for Dhaka on the 9 January evening in 1972. On the way he would stopover in Delhi. He was welcomed at Delhi's Palam Airport in the morning of 10 January by President V.V. Giri, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, West Bengal politician and Chief Minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray and the chiefs of the Indian armed forces. Bangabandhu stayed in Delhi for about two hours. During this time, he addressed a public rally and mesmerized everyone. There he wholeheartedly thanked Mrs. Gandhi, the people and the politicians of India for the tremendous help they had provided to Bangladesh and its ten million refugees.

Then it was on to Dhaka, where millions of people had begun to crowd the route that their leader would pass and the Race Course Maidan where the leader would deliver a speech before going home. On the tarmac at Tejgaon Airport, soldiers of the Indian army and the Mukti Bahini were on standby to present Bangladesh's President with a guard of honour. Members of the wartime cabinet waited in the winter sun, as did a horde of newsmen. Sometime after 1:30 pm the Comet aircraft made available to Bangabandhu by the British government landed in Dhaka.

As soon as the doors of the aircraft opened, Bangabandhu appeared. It was clear he had lost weight due to imprisonment for nearly ten months in a Pakistani prison. A big smile appeared on his face as he swept back his hair with his right hand. Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad then moved forward and buried his head in his leader's chest. Both men broke down. Their tears soon led to moist eyes in nearly everyone else present around them. Once the formalities at the airport were completed, the Father of the Nation climbed on a board of an open truck, with the Mujibnagar government figures and the student leaders crowding around him. He headed for the Race Course.

The two-mile stretch of road would take the procession almost three hours to cover. At the Race Course, Bangabandhu wept remembering the sacrifices of the Bangalees had made in the war against Pakistan. He told how the military junta had tried to intimidate him during his trial. He said, "I told them I am a Bangalee and a Muslim, who only dies once. I would walk the gallows with head held high." The Father of the Nation remarked, the Bangalees had become the golden children of the Golden Bengal. Quoting the poet Rabindranath Tagore, who once had complained that the people of Bengal had remained mere Bangalees but were yet to become true human beings. Mujib told the jubilant crowd that the poet had been proved wrong. "Come back, O poet", he intoned dramatically, "and see how your Bangalees are today transformed into worthy men."

Moments later, as dusk and a winter haze settled over Dhaka, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made his way back to his family. They had been waiting for him at the house in Dhanmondi Road 32 where he had left his family before the Pakistan Army arrested him on the eve of the Liberation War.

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