পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৬৪৬

614 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড Somehow he was expecting some kind of a miracle that would save him from having his back to the wall. His middle-class supporters were gradually leaving the band-wagon. They had joined it in the hope of getting a share in East Pakistan's trade, then entirely in the hands of the West Pakistanis. They had certainly not backed the Sheikh in order to be plunged into a civil war that would mean their own economic ruin as well. All the properties strata of the society were by then frightened and chose "law and order", withdrawing their support from Mujib although not saying so openly. Mujib had asked them to starve the army. But supplies continued to flow into the barracks. Notables began to have secret meetings with the military chiefs. The extremist students were also abandoning Mujib for entirely different reasons. They wanted him to do a Mao while he was trying to do a Gandhi. In the last fateful hours of his career the Sheikh was left with the unreliable support only of the unorganized mass of the Bengali peasantry. The pace of events was too quick for him and soon his authority was superseded by that, of men like Tajuddin Ahmed, the Awami League's secessionist secretary-general and student leaders like Noor-e-Alam Siddiqui and A.S.M. Abdur Rob. On the other side the initiative was in the hands Lt. General Tikka Khan reputed to be the toughest officer to come out of the Punjub for a generation. There was no room on such a stage for romantic, indecisive and utterly confused political actors such as Mujibur Rahman. From then on the only valid dialogue was that spoken in the language of bullets, The Awami League extremists hastily announced the birth of their independent "Bangladesh" while Mujibur Rahman sat in his house in Dhammandi ready to be arrested by the army. Mujib was seized and flown to Karachi in the early hours of March 26. On the plane he slept for just over an hour. He did not talk to anyone. At Karachi airport he had to change planes for Quetta. the capital of Pakistani Baluchistan. He was taken into the VIP lounge and offered English tea. He asked for black coffee. Then two policemen posed behind him and a snap-shot was taken. Few people know of Mujib's whereabouts at present. He is being moved from one prison to another. Last month he went on a hunger strike but he agreed to eat when his wife and children were taken to see him. During the past few weeks he has been writing feverishly. No one knows what he is writing but some people say he is preparing his defense for the time he goes on trial. There are rum ours that he has gone insane and is making unintelligible "speeches" for several hours a day, But I have First hand information that this is not true. The Awami League leader is quite-sound and has neither been tortured nor treated with disrespect. In fact, he is being treated as if he were a VIP spending some time behind bars.