The volume under review is the first of a series of books containing firsthand accounts of freedom fighters the CBLWS plans to bring out. Twelve Liberation War heroes have contributed to this first issue. In 10 of the write-ups they describe numerous guerrilla and conventional military operations and encounters they either led or took part in, besides their day-to-day activities, relationships with various socio-political and military quarters during the war for independence.

Of the remaining two entries, '26 March Chhilo Juddhe Namar Din' (26 March Was the Day to go to War) by retired Col Mohammad Abdus Salam Bir Pratik, then a student leader in Dhaka, is a description of how the March-25 Pakistani crackdown on Bangalis prompted Salam and his associates, then in Sylhet, to mobilise a force on their own. They confronted a contingent of the Pakistani occupation forces the next morning. After a number of the resistance fighters were injured in the skirmish, the rest escaped, realising the futility of such unplanned fights. Salam and three others then headed for Teliapara to join the mainstream freedom fighters. Here ends the write-up, making it very much uni-focal and narrow in scope.

The other entry, 'From Operation Blitz to Operation Searchlight' contributed by the editor, is the last but one entry in the book, although it would have been better placed at the beginning, since in it Major Bhuiyan gives a very detailed socio-political and military background of the war. It covers the major events following the fall of the Ayub regime, from the 1970 general elections to the launching of the murderous Operation Searchlight. Bhuiyan also provides historically significant statistics on the various troops and war equipment of West Pakistan as well as Bangali military, paramilitary and police personnel when the war broke out. However, placing the article at the end of the book to an extent constitutes a failure of the editorial role.

Major Bhuyian however compensates for this shortcoming by beginning the volume with the best-written piece, Tito'r Swadhinata, (Tito's liberation) by Nasiruddin Yusuf, who was then commander of guerrilla forces in the Dhaka North zone. He fought in Sector 2, under Major Khaled Mosharraf. While describing military operations, Yusuf also gradually introduces an adolescent boy named Tito to readers. Mosharraf brings him to Yusuf's camp one night after the guerrillas have been hit hard by Pakistani soldiers. The boy's eyes sparkle with fervour, when next morning, to arouse the spirit of the soldiers, Mosharraf tells them, 'Remember - the people of a liberated country don't love live freedom fighters. The people of a liberated land want dead, not live, guerrillas.' Tito is always insisting on joining the fight, even though he is too young to be inducted. Frustrated, Tito once shouts back, "Why should I live on? My brother has been killed. And I have come to fight. I, too, must die." Fate grants him his wish; he does die one day during a guerrilla ambush in Savar on retreating Pakistani forces. The last words he says are, "I want to see liberation. Liberation, liberation, liberation..." His remains lie in a grave near the entrance to Savar Dairy Farm.

The rest of the contributors to the book are retired Major Hafizuddin Ahmad Bir Bikram, Mahbub Alam, retired Maj Gen Amin Ahmed Chowdhury Bir Bikram, Mahbub Elahi Ranju Bir Pratik, retired Colonel Mohammad Safiq Ullah Bir Pratik, Nizamuddin Laskar, Haider Anwar Khan Juno, Dr Ziauddin Ahmad, and Akhtaruzzaman Mandal.

Hafiz, then a captain in Jessore Cantonment, rebelled along with 200 other Bangali soldiers against the Pakistani army command and left it on March 30. He soon became a part of the Z Force, and took part in the famous attack on the Kamalpur border outpost (BOP), a Pakistani stronghold, as well as in battles in the Sylhet area. His descriptions of various battles, raids and guerrilla operations end with the surrender of Pakistani forces in Sylhet on December 15.

'Ei Bangla, Banglar Mukh' by Mahbub Alam is another account of the war that is as good in literary quality as the piece written by Yusuf. He fought in the north-west, in Sector 6. Generally, the write-ups contributed by Yusuf, Alam, Col Safiqullah (a teacher field-commissioned in 1971), Laskar and other civilians-turned-freedom fighters demonstrate more humane, non-technical, and literary merits than those written by military academy-trained commissioned officers like Maj Ahmad and Maj Gen Chowdhury. The latters' accounts of the war often focus only on war strategy, planning and operational details as well as their prose tends to be jargon-heavy. On the other hand, the war account of Amin Ahmed Chowdhury, particularly the detailed descriptions of the Bangladesh army's attacks on Kamalpur BOP, Bahadurabad Ghat, and Nakshi BOP, is really rich and of much historical importance.

The initiative taken by CBLWS to publish first-hand accounts of the Liberation War is a praiseworthy one, although the selection of write-ups in this volume does not indicate any definite plan or criterion, like presenting a complete overview of the war in one or more specific sectors. Hopefully the coming volumes will be organised considering such aspects, with compilations on forces or services such as medical, signal, intelligence, logistics, liaison with Indian troops and Mujibnagar government, etc, which will help readers acquire clearer pictures and insight about the multi-dimensional aspects of our glorious war of independence.

Azfar Aziz is a journalist and free-lance contributor to the literature page of The Daily Star.