m***@gmail.com
2017-08-09 04:53:25 UTC
It was in Feb. of 1972 when I had my first and last interaction with
Sk.Kamal. It was on the basketball court beside Mohammad Ali Boxing
Stadium at the old Dhaka Stadium. I was leading a basketball team from the
National Coaching Centre. The other teams were also practising at that
court to get famialiarized with it, as the tournaments were played there.
One of the teams was the Spurs, at that time a reputable team among the
basketball fans. Sk. Kamal, the son of BB was also a member of that team.
As such, that team at that time had a special look. I found him arriving
at the court with his friends in a fancy sports car.
Our team, though, belonged to a Govt. organization; we were fortunate
to have a new basketball. That drew the attention of the other players. As
a leader of the team, I was authorized to use it only during our team
participation. The scenario at the court was a little confusing. All the
teams did not have a fair opportunity to practice. As a new team, we had
to leave the court after a little warm up. Therefore, we were not happy
with the deal that we recieved. Then, I noticed that Sk. Kamal was asking
his friends to ask me whether I could let their team use our new ball.
When his friends made the request to me I had to remind them of our team
policy. After a little bit of arguing and finding my stubborness, they
left unhappily.
Then, in 1974, I was a 2nd yr. student of Dhaka Medical College. In the
morning, I arrived there to attend my classes. I heard the news that Sk.
Kamal had been hospitalized at the DMCH with a bullet injury. He narrowly
escaped death, as the bullet lacerated his neck vessels. The story going
around for the cause of this bullet injury was that, in the middle of the
night, he and his friends were in a microbus and they went to commit a
bank robbery at the Motijheel Commercial area. The plain-clothed security
forces found them suspicious and challenged the microbus. The microbus
was chased for sometime by the security officers and was fired upon when
it refused to stop.
I am sure the Home Ministry has removed this whole incident from the
record at BB's instructions. This incident must have made BB realise that
if the neck vessels of SkK could be repaired by the surgeons of DMCH, then
his gallbladder surgery was also possible in BD. At the time he made the
trip to UK for his surgery, there was a famine-like condition throughout
BD. The cry of the beggars "...ammago!!.. bhater phanta amar jonno
rayykkha dien..." may not have reached the Road No.32 of Dhanmondi Res.
area but it does remind me of those shameful days. BB out of euphoria
tried to prove his allegiance to his masters in New Delhi by opening the
borders of BD. It was during this period, Indira Congress for the first
time in 30yrs could win in the West Bengal elections.
As my two kids get older and become inquisitive about the BD history,
should I have to hide the fact that, there was a time in our history when
our head of the state and a bank robber slept under the same roof !!!
We may never know what did really happen. But lack of clear explanation about the injury by BB and Co. is suspect. So is explanation like this ( which does not hold water or even somewhat laughable) : "An adverse condition was prevailing in the country at that moment. He was patrolling the bank area in microbus with some friends. A vehicle carrying policemen was also patrolling the same area. People from both the vehicles suspected one another as robbers. They started chasing one another," Dr Farash Uddin said.Sk.Kamal. It was on the basketball court beside Mohammad Ali Boxing
Stadium at the old Dhaka Stadium. I was leading a basketball team from the
National Coaching Centre. The other teams were also practising at that
court to get famialiarized with it, as the tournaments were played there.
One of the teams was the Spurs, at that time a reputable team among the
basketball fans. Sk. Kamal, the son of BB was also a member of that team.
As such, that team at that time had a special look. I found him arriving
at the court with his friends in a fancy sports car.
Our team, though, belonged to a Govt. organization; we were fortunate
to have a new basketball. That drew the attention of the other players. As
a leader of the team, I was authorized to use it only during our team
participation. The scenario at the court was a little confusing. All the
teams did not have a fair opportunity to practice. As a new team, we had
to leave the court after a little warm up. Therefore, we were not happy
with the deal that we recieved. Then, I noticed that Sk. Kamal was asking
his friends to ask me whether I could let their team use our new ball.
When his friends made the request to me I had to remind them of our team
policy. After a little bit of arguing and finding my stubborness, they
left unhappily.
Then, in 1974, I was a 2nd yr. student of Dhaka Medical College. In the
morning, I arrived there to attend my classes. I heard the news that Sk.
Kamal had been hospitalized at the DMCH with a bullet injury. He narrowly
escaped death, as the bullet lacerated his neck vessels. The story going
around for the cause of this bullet injury was that, in the middle of the
night, he and his friends were in a microbus and they went to commit a
bank robbery at the Motijheel Commercial area. The plain-clothed security
forces found them suspicious and challenged the microbus. The microbus
was chased for sometime by the security officers and was fired upon when
it refused to stop.
I am sure the Home Ministry has removed this whole incident from the
record at BB's instructions. This incident must have made BB realise that
if the neck vessels of SkK could be repaired by the surgeons of DMCH, then
his gallbladder surgery was also possible in BD. At the time he made the
trip to UK for his surgery, there was a famine-like condition throughout
BD. The cry of the beggars "...ammago!!.. bhater phanta amar jonno
rayykkha dien..." may not have reached the Road No.32 of Dhanmondi Res.
area but it does remind me of those shameful days. BB out of euphoria
tried to prove his allegiance to his masters in New Delhi by opening the
borders of BD. It was during this period, Indira Congress for the first
time in 30yrs could win in the West Bengal elections.
As my two kids get older and become inquisitive about the BD history,
should I have to hide the fact that, there was a time in our history when
our head of the state and a bank robber slept under the same roof !!!
This discussion would be of little or no significance if the family Kamal comes from hasn't been shaping our nation to this day. The idea of gathering knowing of this family's past, with clarity, good and bad, is a good one to put things in perspective and hence help BD people decide how much of a shaping of he nation by this family is appropriate. And this approach should not be applied differently to any similarly influential family, e.g Zia/Khaleda. Our lack of putting things in perspective based on facts would be as flawed.
Don't get me wrong. With pragmatism in mind, I have cheering the opposition in every election since the fall of Ershad, even though I detest a lot of these families while giving them credit where it's due, because we don't have a better choice yet.