MPs slam AK Khandker

Air Vice-Marshal (retd) AK Khandker came under fire from lawmakers of treasury and opposition benches for the controversial claims he made in his recent book “1971: Bhitore Baire".

Khandker, who was the deputy chief of liberation forces in the war of independence, claimed in the book that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had mentioned “Joy Pakistan” at the end of his historic March 7 speech in 1971.

During the unscheduled discussion that went on for nearly two hours, MPs from the ruling Awami League and the opposition Jatiya Party demanded that the book be banned for "distorting historic facts".

Some even went on to say that Khandker might have been paid by "foreign agencies like Pakistan's ISI" for writing the book.

AL lawmaker Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim demanded that the government bring sedition charges against Khandker and try him.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said, “I was present on the stage [during Bangabandhu's speech]. I did not hear Bangabandhu utter any such thing.”

Quoting some lines from the book, Tofail said, “AK Khandaker in his book wrote that he did not know in details about the incidents, especially the mass upsurge, as he was in Pakistan then.”

“It is not necessary to respond to his statements as the writer himself acknowledged that he was not aware of those [eventful] days,” he added.

Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Mia came down heavily on Khandker, saying the nation does not care about the book written by a man who had joined hands with "butcher Moshtaque Ahmed" after the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family members on August 15, 1975.

“Bangabandhu means Bangladesh and Bangladesh means Bangabandhu,” he said.

Lawmaker Rafiqul Islam, who was a sector commander during the Liberation War, said AK Khandker might have written the book to serve the purposes of a vested quarter.

“We fought [the Liberation War] under the leadership of Bangabandhu,” he asserted.

Among others, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, AL MP Abul Kalam Azad, JP lawmaker Kazi Feroz Rashid and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal MP Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal participated in the discussion.