Rejoinder by Reaz Rahman

This has reference to the letter of Mr. Reaz Rahman published in your daily of 24 Sept'07. Mr. Rahman's rejoinder to the observations made by Mr. K.M. Shehabuddin in his book " There and back again " and contained in the review by Syed Badrul Ahsan is not at all convincing. Many Bengali diplomats imbued with the spirit of liberation declared their allegiance to the Bangladesh government in exile even in much more hostile circumstances. Being stationed in a country sympathetic to the liberation war, he could have easily flown to any place in the world, rather than joining the bandwagon for Pakistan on the closure of the office of the High Commissioner for Pakistan in Delhi.
He wrote in his letter that on his return to Pakistan in October'71 he immediately exercised his option for Bangladesh. I don't know what he intends to mean by the word "immediately " as options were sought from the stranded Bengalees by the government of Pakistan sometime in the middle of 1972.
The decision to cross the border trusting the hospitality of the Indian embassy in Kabul sometime in the last week of January or first week of February '73 is just another example of opportunism resorted to by the individuals who placed career above everything else. As far as I know, he was a dedicated junior diplomat for Pakistan.