Kabir Chy spurned Pak govt statement in 1971
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, centre, speaks at a programme in commemoration of National Professor Kabir Chowdhury at Bilia auditorium in the city yesterday. (From left) Prof Muntasir Mamun, educationist Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir, Justice Gholam Rabbani and National Professor Salahuddin Ahmed are also seen at the event, organised by Forum for Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971. Photo: STAR
National Professor Kabir Chowdhury had refused to sign a statement prepared by the then Pakistan government of 1971 stating that reports of mass killing and genocide in the country were "untrue", knowing that his life could be endangered by such refusal. The Pakistan government, somehow, had published the statement in the New York Times with Kabir Chowdhury's name, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith in his Kabir Chowdhury memorial speech yesterday. Intelligence officials of the Pakistan government later had asked Kabir Chowdhury to sign the document to authenticate the published statement, he said. “And he [Kabir Chowdhury] refused once again.” Muhith was addressing the Kabir Chowdhury memorial speech and discussion at Bilia auditorium in the city. Forum for Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971 organised the event in commemoration of Kabir Chowdhury's 90th birth anniversary. Speakers said Kabir Chowdury was a teacher of teachers and a leader of politicians. “He spent his entire life in teaching, from the beginning to the very end,” said AMA Muhith. When Kabir Chowdhury was requested to teach at the National University, he first wanted to design a whole new course on fundamentalism and later teach that course there, said educationist Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir. In fact, Kabir Chowdhury had spent his entire life fighting against religious fundamentalism as well as against moves to transform Bangladesh into another Pakistan, said National Professor Salahuddin Ahmed. He was a strong advocate for the war crimes trial throughout his life, which makes it all the more sad that Kabir Chowdhury could not see a completion of the trial in his lifetime, the speakers said. Shyamoli Nasrin Chowdhury, Prof Muntasir Mamun and Justice Gholam Rabbani, president of the Forum for Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971, also spoke.
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