Mr. Haque worked in Radio Pakistan, Dacca as Assistant Regional Director Programmes before joining the external publicity division of Pakistan in 1966. He was posted to New Delhi immediately thereafter.
Mr. Shahabuddin sought asylum along with his wife and two daughters. Mr. Ilaque is a bachelor.
In a statement, they said the people of Bangladesh considered the Islamabad Government a foreign colonial regime which had shown itself to be more oppressive and barbarous than any history had ever known. Islamabad was engaged in a wanton and demented massacre of the innocent and unarmed people of Bangladesh World opinion has begun to realize the magnitude of this outrage.
The diplomats said they had severed their connexon “with the fascist military dictatorship in Islamabad as our conscience no longer permits us to act against our deepest convictions.” From now on they owed allegiance to Bangladesh which derived its authority from the unambiguous mandate of the 75 million Bengali people.
They were the first Pakistani diplomats to seek asylum in the wake of the Bangladesh freedom movement.
“The Swadhin Bangla Radio, in a broadcast the previous week, had advised Bengali diplomats who received orders of transfer after the army crackdown in East Bengal to seek asylum in the countries in which they were posted.
There were three other Bengali officers among the 14 diplomats in the Pakistan High Commission. Two of them had just been transferred to India.
