Testimony of a solider
Memoir of an individual provides readers with the scope to learn about many unknown facts of events that took place in the past. Thus a memoir always appears as a source of information on those events. Though Brig Gen (retd) Shamsuddin Ahmed has named his memoir, "Testimony of a Solider", it is basically a historical account or biography of the former general. He has written it on the basis of his personal knowledge and experiences gathered through his long career as a solider in the army. He joined the army during the Pakistan era; participated in the glorious Liberation War in 1971 and later witnessed closely many significant events in the army. These include assassinations of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, late President Ziaur Rahman, General Manzur, and some coups and counter coups in Bangladesh army since the country's independence.
In his book, the author narrated how the army in independent Bangladesh was structured and shaped. He did not forget to mention the 'cold war' among the then senior army officers. He wrote how in early 1973 an Army Organisation Committee headed by Brigadier KM Shafiullah, chief of army staff, began to work out broad outlines of the organisational shape and structure of the Bangladesh Army. Brig Ziaur Rahman, Brig Khaled Mosharraf, Brig Shawkat Ali and Colonel MA Manzur were members of this committee. Shamsuddin was the member secretary of the committee. The committee meetings were held over a period of time. Shawkat and Manzur, who had to come from Chittagong and Jessore respectively, could not stay long in Dhaka.
Shamsuddin in his book lauded efficiency of Manzur, who was later promoted to major general rank, and eventually murdered inside the Chittagong cantonment after the assassination of Ziaur Rahman. "But undoubtedly it was Colonel Manzur who dominated the meetings because when he spoke he did so with such clarity, reason and authority that one could hardly disagree with him. He was simply too brilliant an officer one could hardly win over in arguments," Shamsuddin testifies.
He describes how there was visibly a streak of cold relation bordering on hostility between Brigadier Ziaur Rahman and Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf. Invariably Zia would disagree with Khaled on most issues no matter how sensible and logical the latter sounded.
As Gen Shamsuddin worked at the army headquarters for quite a long time, he witnessed closely and gathered information and experiences on some major events in the army and his book is a gift for those who want to know some inside stories of the army in those days.
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