Tearful PM tells exile story

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina burst into tears while recollecting emotional memories of her return to Bangladesh after six-long year in exile.

“I didn’t even plan out where I would stay. I simply packed two suitcases and came home,” she said at a programme organised to mark the 33rd anniversary of her return on Saturday.

Her poignant description of the event left many in the audience teary-eyed.

Sheikh Hasina, the eldest daughter of the nation’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana were abroad when their father and rest of the family members were massacred in a coup by a group of army officers on Aug 15, 1975.

She finally returned to the country on May 17, 1981, after being denied entry for many years.

“It was a Sunday and it was raining heavily,” she recalled while trying hard to suppress her emotion.

Despite her best effort, she could not hold back tears while recollecting how she saw her father once in dream.

“I saw Abba (father) once in my dream. I asked him, where are you? We can never come home if Awami League falls apart.”

“He said, ‘don’t you worry. The party will stay united’.”

There was pin drop silence at the entire hall in Ganabhaban as she narrated her conversation with her slain father in dream.

“I just kept thinking that democracy needs to return and our organisation needs to be strengthened.”

She said thousands braved the rain to greet her on that ‘stormy day’.

“I had everyone when I left Bangladesh … my parents, my brothers. Russel was there to see me off at the airport. Thousands showed their love when I returned but the ones I loved were gone forever.”

“They were in the series of graves at Banani graveyard … that was tough,” she said with a lump on her throat.

After six years of exile in India’s New Delhi, Hasina landed at Tejgaon Airport as the head of Awami League.

The road to the old international airport from Manik Miah Avenue was teeming with people who came from far stretches of the country to greet Bangabandhu’s daughter.

“I am amidst you after losing everything,” she had told the gathering.

Sheikh Hasina was not allowed to enter her Dhanmondi home where her family, including seven-year old brother Rasel, was killed.

“They wouldn’t let me inside the house at road no 32. I sat on the street and prayed for them. Zia (then President Ziaur Rahman) ordered that I should not be let in,” Hasina recalled.

“I used to remain seated at the doorstep … next to that lake,” she said in a choked voice.

“It might sound easy, the way I’m saying it, but it wasn’t at all …”

Hasina, with her two children and sister Rehana, left Bangladesh for Karlsruhe, Germany, where her husband used to work, just around two weeks before her family was to be wiped out.

After the assassinations, Sheikh Hasina and her family took refuge in New Delhi at the behest of Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister of India.

She lived at Pandera Road in Indian capital until May 17, 1981.

“I left just 15 days before that terrible incident without knowing what fate had in store for me. I had left behind everyone at home, but after that day I was left with no one. I didn’t know what I would do or where I would go. India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Yugoslav’s Marshal Tito (Josip Broz Tito) took care of us.”

About coming to India, she said, “I still wasn’t sure. Some said Ma was alive. I also heard that Rasel was alive. But after meeting Indira Gandhi all confusions were cleared.”

Bangladesh’s then envoy to Germany Humayun Rashid Chowdhury extended his support to her despite his limitations as a government officer, she said. But then Foreign Minister Kamal Hossain was unmoved, and the prime minister said, it astonishes her till date.

“Abba’s foreign minister was away from the country when it happened. I got to see him on Aug 16. I asked him to give a statement. He didn’t.”

“I got no help from him. He didn’t hold one press conference. He didn’t even check up on us. I was living in exile after that.”

The then government had prohibited her from returning to Bangladesh.

“The first time I gave a public speech was at York Hall in London. It was Aug 16, 1980.”

About that time, she said, “It was not so easy back then. Zia was in power. War criminals roamed London with gusto. Brick Lane was especially unsafe. They would chase after you with knives.”

She said post-1975 Bangladesh was disintegrating due to incessant coups.

“Zia’s grabbing of power led to numerous coups … 18 to 19 almost. Every coup led to killing of freedom fighters in the army and countless leaders and activists of the Awami League.”

Awami League was in a mess when release of its leaders was started in 1979. “Awami League was divided. There was every effort to prevent me from coming home.”

“Rehana and I stayed connected with Dhaka through letters, urging party workers to stay united.”

A party meeting organised in 1981 unanimously elected Sheikh Mujib’s eldest daughter as its president.

“I didn’t know that the council will elect me as their head. Rehana came to Delhi from London. She told me that very day, I had been elected president of the Awami League.”

“I had never thought I would have to lead Awami League. I’m always proud to be Bangabandhu’s daughter. I don’t want anything more.”

“There used to be curfew every night from 11pm-6am from Aug 15, 1975 until the election in 1986,” she recalled describing the political situation in Bangladesh when she returned.

“How could democracy function when night-time curfews became a necessary tool for governance?

Referring to Awami League she said, “You can’t govern a state without organisation.”