Foreign friends of Bangladesh
The government yesterday honoured 69 foreign friends for their contributions to the 1971 Liberation War with two awards -- “Bangladesh Liberation War Honour” and “Friends of Liberation War Honour” -- at a function in the capital's Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.
The awardees are nationals of India (43), Pakistan (13), USA (4), Nepal (3), Japan (2), the UK, Australia, Cuba and Sweden.
The “Bangladesh Liberation War Honour” was conferred on Fidel Castro Ruz, former president of Cuba, and Lord Harold Wilson, former British prime minister.
Ambassador of Cuba in Dhaka Abelardo Cueto Sosa and Prof Robin Wilson, son of Harold Wilson, received the honour on behalf of the two.
The remaining 67 friends were conferred with “Friends of Liberation War Honour”.
The nationals of India are Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya, former police officer and trainer of Mukti Bahini; Prof Mrinmoy Bhattacharyya; Rupendra Chandra Bhowmik, physician and social worker; Prof Amiya K Chaudhuri; artist Dhiraj Choudhury; writer Himangshu Mohan Choudhury Padmashree; teacher and writer Rakhal Chandra Roy Choudhury; Former chief of army staff General Shankar Roychowdhury; social worker Sandip Das; writer Prof Mihir Deb; painter Jagdish Chandra Dey; magician PC Sorcar, Junior; Munshi Mohammad Fazle Kader; Prof Dhrubajyoti Lahiry; human rights activist Utpala Misra; businessman and writer Mohanlal Saha; journalist Jyoti Prasad Saikia; former chief secretary of West Bengal Chandra Sekhar Samal Padmashree; Prof Priyadarsan Sensarma; Indian Navy Petty Officer Chiman Singh Yadav; former chief of Indian army's eastern command late Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Arora; philosopher Abu Sayid Ayub; former West Bengal chief minister late Jyoti Basu; Prof Purnendu Kumar Basu; human rights activist Kabita Bose; journalist Pershanath Chowdhury; film producer Hari Sadhan Dasgupta; politician and minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi; social worker Kripesh Ranjan Ghosh; human rights activist Ipsita Gupta; army rifleman Pati Ram Gurung; late Maj Gen Antony Harold Edward Michigan; social worker late Ranu Mookerjee; former West Bengal deputy chief minister Bijoy Singh Nahar; journalist Jitendra Chandra Pal; Commander of Indian Naval Ship late Vice Admiral Swaraj Prakash; photojournalist Raghu Rai Padmashree; Second Lt of Indian Army's 8 Guard Regiment Shamsher Singh Sharma; Prof Anil Kumar Sarkar; former minister late Nandini Satpathy; late Prof Arjun Sengupta; and late Lt Gen Sagat Singh.
The only organisation to be awarded is the Indian Red Cross Society, West Bengal Branch.
The nationals of Pakistan are politician Begum Naseem Akhter; lawyer Zafar Malik; late philosopher Dr Eqbal Ahmad; human rights activist Tahira Mazhar Ali; politician Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo; journalist Faiz Ahmed Faiz; politician Habib Jalib; politician Malik Ghulam Jilani; politician and filmmaker Shameem Ashraf Malik; journalist Prof Waris Mir; politician Qazi Faiz Mohammad; journalist and pilot Anwer Pirzado; and human rights activist Ahmad Salim.
The nationals of the USA are archeologist David Nalin; poet and social worker late Allen Ginsberg; and Prof Gustav F Papanek and his wife Prof Hanna Papanek.
The nationals of Nepal are politican Narayan Khadka, former police officer and trainer of Mukti Bahini Dil Bahadur Lama; and former minister and congress leader Ram Saran Mahat.
The two nationals of Japan are professors and social workers Tomio Mizokami and Heiji Nakamura.
Late Prof Herbert Feith of Australia and late social worker Sven Lampell of Sweden are the last two awardees.