Syed Shah Salim Ahmed:The Foreign Minister gave an interview to The Week (Indian) on 31 May 2020. Most of the questions asked by journalist Rabi Banerjee to the foreign minister concerned bringing back Bangabandhu’s killer.
Professor Taj Hashmi, an expatriate from the United States, has written some personal and incoherent writings involving the foreign minister on his countercurrent.org.
While we acknowledge that he has every right to do so – he is his own autonomous being – however, in writing this, he has subtly inserted some unsolicited, personal, angry and resentful information which is not only full of lies but also enough to spread confusion.
It is easy to understand the bloodshed of the self-interested groups in the country and abroad and a class of people jump up against the foreign minister whenever they find something. Manabzamin has published news at their headline banner as Chadabaaz (Extortion) Abdul Momen (2001) whilst his elder brother, former Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith’s was first contended in the Election against the four-party alliance, at that election period Dr Abdul Momen appealed to the expatriates for his elder brother’s election campaign. Manabzamin published a headline report that Abdul Momen doing chadabazi (Extortion) from abroad for his brother election. This is nothing new.
There was a conspiracy against Abdul Momen in 1971 as well. On that period, the Pakistani army, with the help of Razakar NSF, wanted to kill Abdul Momen by shelling his house on the banks of Dhupadighirpar. Domestic and foreign conspirators are now together against Abdul Momen because he has done a wonderful job for the country and expatriates including bringing all killers of Bangabandhu from abroad.
Taj Hashmi wrote much based on The Week’s May 31 interview with Abdul Momen. You wrote that Abdul Momen used to do NSF like you, he was the president of SM Hall.
“Many issues are made up and false in his ‘Open Letter’.
I never said “1970” – I have published many articles where I mentioned how I served Bangabandhu in 1969 in Rawalpindi during RTC. He quoted an Indian journalist who possibly made the mistake (I don’t know). Why should I say 1970?
I was never President of SM Hall NSF as he claimed.
I joined Bangabandhu in Rawalpindi at the RTC meeting. I did not accompany him from Dhaka. He made it up. I was living in Rawalpindi on those days. My RTC days have been published in many papers in early 1990s and reprinted in my books as well. Any one can read those and get the details.
I never said “senior amla(bureaucrate)”. No reason to say so. I
was Private Secretary to Dewan Farid Ghazi, not PA and was pretty close to Bangabandhu.…I have no recollection of him” Dr A .K.Abdul Momen, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh.
Taj Hashmi, this information of yours is not just a lie but a misrepresentation of the truth. Abdul Momen never said like this, he was not even the president of the NSF’s SM Hall. We understood, it always takes a reference to a ruler to establish one’s own cleansing. You have cleverly fabricated that reference. You have claimed that Abdul Momen met Bangabandhu in 1970, but the truth is that Abdul Momen did not claim this in 1970. The Indian journalist wrote this in the bracket without asking him or verifying the information, Abdul Momen did not make that claim.
Originally, there is a record of Abdul Momen’s work with Bangabandhu in 1969 at RTC in Rawalpindi. Dr Abdul Momen was with Bangabandhu at the RTC meeting in Rawalpindi. Numerous books, journals and articles of that time contain detailed information about it (RTC). Momen never said that he went to Pindi from Dhaka with Bangabandhu or as a travelling companion.
We know that Abdul Momen lived in Rawal Pindi at that time. He studied at Islamabad University. When Bangabandhu reached Pindi, he felt blessed to be engaged in his full-time service. From then on, Bangabandhu’s closeness with him grew continues. You have cleverly avoided this historical fact and are spreading false information about Abdul Momen with a few sweet words – I leave it to your conscience to decide whether it agrees with the ethics of a former teacher(you).
Further to the above, Abdul Momen has never claimed to be a senior bureaucrat in his life – this is rather a claim of an Indian journalist. Nor was he a PA of Farid Gazi – he was a private secretary. Due to age, many professors like you have equated PA and PS. Doctors have identified it as Alzheimer’s.
Taj Hashmi, you wrote, you were a classmate at the university with Abdul Momen. But the reality is – many people can study in the same academic year at the university – that’s normal. But he can recall your name. When someone reaches the pinnacle of fame on the pretext of the same year, many claim he is my classmate. It is suitable for students of the same university. That being said, is it reasonable to confuse a person who can’t remember when he or she saw you at the university with false information?
