East-west rift: Agartala conspiracy case

Although I ceased to be a university teacher in October 1967, my initial links to the project probably caused the authorities to trace me in the Civil Service Academy. On a cold day in mid-December 1967, deputy director Dr Tarik Siddiqi told me that the director Mr Abdul Majid wanted me to see him. Dr Siddqi said, 'It is an urgent thing which the director will discuss with you. I must tell you he is not very happy about the business.

When I entered the director's office, he was looking at a paper with a frown. He asked me to sit down and said, 'How does Altaf Gauhar know you?' I told him about my meeting with Mr Gauhar, the secretary, and high officials of ministry of information in my capacity as editor of the English monthly Concept from 1964-1967. The director said, 'Altaf Gauhar now wants you to be in Dhaka for about two weeks for work on a book or something. I first refused to let you go but he is insistent on your presence in Dhaka. I shall comply with his request and grant you leave for the period.

I must, however, tell you, this is something that is not going to do you any good in your career as civil servant''. Director Majid then softened his tone and asked me to drink the tea that had been served. I maintained discreet silence. The director had more to say. He observed, "You see what we want to achieve through training of our civil servants is to achieve a high average of good and skilled officers of the government. Unusual talents with high connections early in their lives are usually misfits in this world. Such people usually lose their jobs or give these up before time.'

Although this was what exactly happened to me, I could not, at that time, consider myself an extraordinary talent doomed to crash in my career as elite civil servant. I lost my job in 1971 and later in 1980 voluntarily resigned from the service in the liberated Bangladesh. These, however, are later stories.

At that time I was delighted to travel to Dhaka despite the director's grim words of caution. My parents and my wife Sufia and sons Nipu (four and a half years), Topu (two and a half years) were happy beyond measure to see me so soon. So were my brothers and sisters. By that time, the entire family had moved to new rented house at 113, Azimpur Road. The few days I spent in Dhaka also provided me with a chance to refresh bonds with friends who still continued to live and work in the familiar and dear city.

The work that brought me to Dhaka did not demand much time. It related to organising a meeting between the teachers and secretary Altaf Gauhar in the then office of the Council for National Integration ib the Topkhana Road. The important officers there were Mr Tofazzal Hossain, a veteran information and public relations personality, and Mrs Nazma Atahar, the smart and popular figure in the sphere of communications. My relations with them were excellent from 1964. I was often invited to speak at the seminar, the council organised, and write in its bulletins and journals. I still remember when Mr Tofazzal Hossain, Tofazzal bhai as we called him, smiled happily on receiving the news that I had successfully competed to become a member of the civil service of Pakistan.

He said to me with a twinkle in his eyes, 'Congratulations. But there is one unfortunate loss for us. Now that you have become a government officer, we have to strike out your name from the list of intellectuals. According to the existing convention and usage, no government official can be considered as an "intellectual"!' I only remembered his interesting words as he and I received the honorary research fellowship of the Bangla Academy on the April 14, 2014. Needless to say, I had ceased to be a government official by that time.

The meeting of the teachers took only half a day. Mr Altaf Gauhar attended it as virtual chief organiser. Mrs Nazma Atahar and Mr Tofazzal Hossain were evidently impressed by what they regarded as my close relationship with the mighty information secretary. The few days of unexpected reunion with family and friends seemed to end very quickly. The time to depart from Lahore came in early January 1968. I bade sorry farewell to family and friends and boarded the PIA flight to Lahore from Dhaka's old airport at Tejgaon. As the plane took off, I was delighted to find my friend from the teenage Shafaat Jamil, travelling with me. He had been commissioned as an army officer in mid-1960s. In 1968 he was a Captain.

East-west rift: Agartala conspiracy case
Extremely pleased at seeing him on the fight to Lahore, I greeted him warmly. He however, appeared to be somewhat sad and withdrawn. After exchanging words about families and friends, he put a stop to our conversation and said he would come to the Civil Service Academy in the late afternoon to speak with me more elaborately. I did not, at that moment, understand the why and wherefor of his reticence on board the plane. He expressed his apprehensions about the adverse development in national life when he saw me in my room at the academy that evening.

I had also read the brief news in the dailies about the so called 'Agartala conspiracy case'. I however, did not attach much significance to it. Shafaat Jamil, being an officer of the overwhelmingly West Pakistani armed forces of Pakistan, seemed to have felt the dangerous prospect of repression and oppression of the Bengalis in the coming days. He said, 'We Bengalis, especially those in the civil and military services, have to be cautious and prepare for the dangers that may come.'

As records show, 'The case was filed in early 1968 and implicated Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others in conspiring with India against the stability of Pakistan. The case is officially called State vs Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others, but is popularly known as Agartala Sharajantra Mamla (Agartala conspiracy case) as the main conspiracy was purported to have taken place in the Indian city of Agartala in Tripura state, where Sheikh Mujib's associates met Indian Intelligence Bureau officials.'

Among the accused were Ahmed Fazlur Rahman, Ruhul Quddus and Khan Mohammad Shamsur Rahman - all Bengali officers of the CSP cadres. Among the military officials steward Mujibur Rahman, commander Moazzem Hossain, flight sergeant Mahfiz Ullah, corporal Abdus Samad, sergeant Zahurul Huq and 1,500 other Bengalis were arrested in connection with the plot in 1967. In January 1968, the home department of Pakistan declared that it detected a scheme to destabilise Pakistan and break the eastern wing through an armed revolt and had arrested eight people. Later on January 18, the department implicated Sheikh Mujib as well. He and others were arrested on May 9, 1968 and were subsequently released, only to be arrested later.'

Reverberation: The significance of the course and end of the Agartala conspiracy case is a part of history as it unfolded up to 1971. As the case was deliberately built by the Pakistani central government, its echoes were felt in the corridors of officialdom. The Civil Service Academy in Lahore was no exception. I remember, Chowdhury Amin Ullah, a hard-core Punjabi official in the making, made provocative remarks about Bengali high officials who were implicated in the Agartala case. He used to observe sarcastically, "Let us call traitors Ruhul Quddus and Ahmed Fazlur Rahman.' Then he stared at Bengali colleagues such as Mohiuddin Ahmed Modhu, who were spirited advocates of Bengali rights in Pakistan.

Dr Mizanur Rahman Shelly, founder Chairman of Centre for Development Research (CDRB), and former teachnocrat Cabinet Minister of Bangladesh, Died on August 12, 2019. He contributed his writeups to the Daily Observer which are being published regularly as "The Symphony of Our Times"