Bangla army chief wants to meet '71 heroes

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, July 1,2007 : Bangladesh army chief Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed wants to meet India’s heroes of the Bangladesh liberation war when he comes visiting here from August 22-26.

Highly placed sources said Bangladesh had put in a request to meet Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw as well as General JFR Jacob, India’s top soldiers who helped Bangladesh defeat Pakistan in the creation of an independent nation in December 1971.

The sources said the Bangladesh army chief, a `mukti-joddha’ or ``freedom-fighter,’’ is very keen to pay his respects to both war heroes. He may travel to Wellington where Manekshaw, currently 93 years of age, lives and Calcutta, where Jacob is said to divide his time with New Delhi.

In fact, Gen. Ahmed has also asked for a meeting with the West Bengal chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, indicating his desire to invest the upgradation of bilateral ties with political strength.

In the wake of the Foreign Secretary-level talks in Dhaka last week, where both sides declared their intention to end the bitterness of the past and work together to produce results that benefited the people on both sides, the Bangladesh government is keen to resignal a special relationship with West Bengal.

Considering the army in Bangladesh is the power behind the caretaker president, Gen. Moeen Ahmed’s keenness to meet the heroes of the Bangladesh war as well as the West Bengal chief minister has sent a ripple of excitement through the Indian establishment.

Certainly, the army chief’s visit is no ordinary one, the sources said, and cannot be limited only to meetings with the Indian army establishment and Defence minister. That is why Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon met him in Dhaka last week.

``This is a political-military visit, let us not make any mistake about it. The most powerful man in Bangladesh is visiting India,’’ the sources said.

New Delhi remains particularly keen to figure out the extent of Gen. Moeen’s interest in holding on to power in Bangladesh. Although caretaker president Fakhruddin Ahmed has announced that elections will be held by the end of 2008, India wants to know whether the army chief will really relinquish power at the time.

Gen. Moeen’s determination to impart a significant profile to his `mukti-joddha’ status and meet India’s Bangladesh war heroes seems to have also considerably pleased New Delhi.

The sources said this indicated Dhaka’s determination in returning to a special relationship with India. Former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s considerable antagonism had put ties under strain, but the new government’s zeal to improve relations is enormously welcome, they said.

Sources said the `Moitreyee Express,’ a train between Sealdah and Dhaka Cantonment, that has been in the making since 1992, is all ready to make its first trip. Tracks on the Bangladesh side have already been upgraded, and Indian Railways is putting the final touches to its own side.

The Bangladeshi train is fitted with a special prayer car, besides chair cars and sleeping cars, Bangladeshi papers have reported. There is much excitement in Bangladesh, the reports said, that at last a train service would connect the two biggest cities of undivided Bengal.

ENDS