বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ তৃতীয় পত্র
On September 23, a Bengali employee in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, Mr. S. M. Nurul Huda, made a daring escape when he scaled the chancery wall to free himself from nearly 1 Vi months' confinement in his official residence.
Shortly after his escape from what he described as prison life, Mr. Huda (27) contacted the Bangladesh mission to declare his allegiance to the “legitimate Government of my Motherland." He was attached to the High Commission as a supervisor in the telephone exchange.
When he met newsmen later, he betrayed his concern for his wife now in Bangladesh. He stated: “I know it is a big risk dodging two armed West Pakistani guards inside our quarters. But, I had no choice I just could not bear it any more. I appeal to you to rescue my colleagues who are being treated like prisoners inside the chancery."
He added that the Bengali employees in the Pakistan High Commission had been held as hostages and were being subjected to all kinds of indignities.
On September 28, four more employees of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi switched their allegiance to Bangladesh along with their families.
The four members of the staff were Mr. Mufizur Rahman, stenographer, Mr. A. K. Azad, upper division assistant, Mr. Mohammad Zainul Abedin, lower assistant, and Mr. Ghulam Mustafa, dispenser.
Mr. Mufizur Rahman told a news conference at the Bangladesh mission that a large crowd of people had helped them get down from a bus after they had told them that they were being taken to Pakistan forcibly. The people arranged for another bus from the border which brought them to the Bangladesh mission.
Mr. Rahman said that about 16 West Pakistani nationals, most of them armed, were escorting them in a minibus and a Mercedes car of the Embassy. They tried to block the way of the defectors but could not succeed before the crowd. The escorts turned back after having waited for half-an-hour and making sure that the defectors were not likely to return with them.
On October 1, yet another Bengali employee of the Pakistan High Commission escaped from the mission building in New Delhi.
Mr. Abdul Shaheed (40), a peon scaled the compound wall of the Embassy and found his way to the Bangladesh mission, located about 4 km away.
Mr. Shaheed was the 11th Bengal employee of the Pakistan High Commission to switch allegiance to Bangladesh,
Three more Bengali employees of Pakistani missions abroad, two of them cypher assistants also defected and joined the Bangladesh liberation movement, Mr. Nayebul Huda, a cypher assistant for 19 years, was last serving in the Embassy at Brussels (Belgium), when he too quit on receipt of orders of transfer to Islamabad which he considered a graveyard of Bengali officials."
