Sam Manekshaw : Bangladesh Celebrates ‘Greatest Rescuer’

Sam Manekshaw changed world history by creating a new nation, ‘Bangladesh’ as Allah wished, and prevented a massacre that had the potential of becoming another Holocaust after the Second World War. This was the sentiment at a forum of freedom fighters that condoled the demise of their ‘great saviour’, at a meeting in Dhaka.

A message  from  Muhammed  Musa, the Secretary of BCS Freedom   Fighter   Officers-Employees   Central    Welfare Association,  said,  “We  gratefully  acknowledge the valiant Indian  soldiers  who  sacrificed  their  valuable  lives  to free Bangladesh  from  the occupation  forces  of Pakistan under the supreme stewardship of Manekshaw.”

The members of the Association recalled at the meeting how after the liberation of Bangladesh, the Indian forces who fought alongside the ‘Mukti Bahini’ (freedom fighters), left Bangladesh to prove their commitment to the cause of liberation of Bangladesh. Had the Indian forces and freedom fighters failed to reach Dhaka on 16th December 1971, most of the Bangladesh intellectuals, journalists, poets, writers, professors, artists and singers would have been killed by Rajakars and Al-Badr groups assisted by Pakistani Forces, the association members reminisced.

In a resolution the association said, “The people of Bangladesh are deeply indebted to the late Field Marshall Manekshaw for winning our freedom from Pakistani Forces in 1971. He and the allied forces saved the people and the whole of Bengali Nation from utter ruin. The Field Marshal would be remembered forever as the ‘greatest rescuer’ in the hearts of the people of Bangladesh.” 

This recognition of his contribution came close on the heels of a recent invitation, in April’08 from Bangladesh Government to10 former Indian Generals- who participated in their liberation struggle with the Indian Army- to visit Bangladesh and attend an event to mark the 1971 victory.