বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (প্রথম খণ্ড)/৭৯
| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| ফজলুল হক কর্তৃক প্রকাশিত বিবৃতির প্রতিবাদ | পাকিস্তান অবজারভার | ২৬শে মে, ১৯৫৪ |
“Deliberate Falsehood and Perversion of Facts”
Fazlul Huq Contradicts ‘New York Times’ Report: Provincial Autonomy for East Pak. pleaded.
Karachi, May 24: “The notes taken by the Karachi correspondent of the New York Times, of my conversation with him contains nothing but deliberate falsehood and perversion of facts,” said Mr. A.K. Fazlul Huq, Chief Minister of East Bengal while contradicting a statement published under his name by the New York Times.
He said, “what I actually stated at the interview to the correspondents was, East Pakistan should be an autonomous unit of Pakistan. This is our ideal and we will fight for it.”
The following is the full text of Mr. Fazlul Huq’s statement, issued to the Press late tonight:
“Today at about 4 p.m. I have had the advantage of having read some of the notes taken by the Karachi correspondent of the New York Times, of my conversation with him on Monday. I regret to have to say that the statement as taken down by him containing nothing but deliberate falsehood and perversion of facts which it is impossible to believe, has been made deliberately. Every word of the statement is baseless, falsehood and every sentence is perversion of truth. It is impossible to contradict such a statement peacemeal, so, I am making the following statement as a whole to give the public an idea of what I said and how much my statement has been mutilated.
What I actually stated at the interview to the correspondents are as follows:
“East Pakistan should be an autonomous unit of Pakistan. This is our ideal; and we will fight for it.” I never said for a moment that our ideal is “independence.”
I extremely regret that I am so much misunderstood and misreported. Perhaps people come to me with preconceived notions about me. I am not a coward. If I said something I will own it up.
There were two correspondents, the Reuters and the New York Times, at the interview.
They asked me about the defense of East Pakistan. I told them that in the case of aggression, we would expect help from West Pakistan but if no help was forthcoming from West Pakistan we will help ourselves.
I did say that East Pakistan has a fine manpower for a first class Navy.
There was a discussion about this interview at the Prime Minister's House where the correspondents were called in. The correspondent of the New York Times admitted that I did not talk of independence. He said that he had gathered it from my talks.
The New York Times correspondent in Karachi is famous for his notoriety in reporting. Many a sensational stories sent by him from Karachi were ultimately proved baseless. The most ridiculous item published by the paper from its Karachi correspondent is the Language Firing of Dacca in February 1952, in which the double column headline said. “Indian police open fire on Dacca, students: 4 Killed and several injured,” but the story following was more ridiculous still. It said that “there were two English Language daily newspapers in Dacca, the Pakistan Observer and the Morning News. The Government banned the Pakistan Observer in protest of which the students organized a strike and the press of the Morning News was gutted down. The Indian police had to open fire to bring the situation under control as a result of which 4 students died and several others were injured. - (Ed., P.O.)
Ali, Hug and Times Reporter confer.
It is understood that on reading the text of Mr. Fazlul Huq's interview with Mr. John D. Challahan of the New York Times, the Prime Minister got together both Mr. Huq and Challahan and put before them the published report of the interview, reports A.P.P.
Mr. Fazlul Huq denied having made some of the statements ascribed to him Mr. Challahan of “New York Times” however struck to his version of the interview and did not retract any part of it.-(A.P.P.)