The Sector Commander's Forum (SCF) has said what SCF chairman Air Vice-Marshal (Retd) AK Khandker Bir Uttam narrated in his book, '1971: Bhetore Baire' was solely of his own opinion.

In the joint statement signed by SCF acting secretary general Haroon Habib, the SCF leaders said there is no similarity between his statement and remarks in his book and the policy, ideals and realisation of the historic truth of the Forum.

In the statement, the SCF leaders feared that the widely controversial book of Khandaker could be used as a new tool for the local and foreign conspirators engaged in distorting the history of the independence of Bangladesh and hoped that the information contained in the book would soon be corrected and rectified.

The SCF leaders said, "In his book Deputy Chief of Staff in the war of liberation AK Khandaker has presented misleading statement of the historic independence speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered on March 26 in 1971 long 43 years after Bangladesh's independence, which we think as utterly unfortunate and beyond objectivity. We believe that Bangabandhu's independence speech is an established historic truth, which is preserved round the world."

The SCF leaders said, "In the book, what the author has claimed about the historic March 7 speech of the Liberation War's living-sprit Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was beyond reality and such a misleading statement 43 years after independence has stunned us."

They said, "The war of liberation of Bangladesh was the culmination of long arduous political struggle of the nation and people's sacrifices against exploitation and atrocities of the Pakistani military dictators which was principally led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. But, in his book, AK Khandakar while passing remarks on the glorious events of the nation, unfortunately, raised questions on the competence and farsightedness of the successful leadership of the Liberation War, which has also made us speechless."

The SCF leaders termed the statement contained in the book as unwarranted and unacceptable to all those who participated in the war of liberation and the people who have minimum knowledge of the history of the Bangalee nation.

The other signatory to the statement included Major General (Retd) KM Shafiullah (Bir Uttam), Major General (Retd) CR Datta (Bir Uttam), Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Abu Osman Chowdhury, Colonel (Retd) Shamsul Alam, M Hamid, Major General (Retd) Shahjahan, Major (Retd) Ziauddin Ahmed, Md Nurul Alam and Anwarul Alam Shaheed.