It was a loving affair. I was loving it a lot, but it didn't seem possible for me to finish it right away. Two elderly spouses wanted to preserve some love stories in a book that began in the United Pakistan.news world ahmed
Pakistan broke down on December 16, 1971, but these loves did not break and remain today. Both of these spouses were two characters in the same story. Mahmud and his wife Nasreen first met me in Dhaka in 2013.news world ahmed
One evening, me and Asma Jahangir were invited to a Bangla Television channel and discussed the case against the leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami in the War Crimes Tribunal.
Asma Jahangir was of the view that the requirements of justice in the War Crimes Tribunal should be met and not retaliated. I also said that the matters that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman decided in his life should not be avoided as there was a tripartite agreement between Pakistan, Bangladesh and India under which India released thousands of Pakistani prisoners of war. , They also included military officers who were charged with war crimes. If these military officers were not prosecuted, prosecuting their political supporters would not meet the requirements of justice.current world news
I and Asma Jahangir's position strongly disagreed with some of our Bengali friends, but there were many who believed that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh should get out of prison and move towards a new future. The night I had this conversation in Dhaka, when I returned to the hotel that night, Mahmood contacted me by telephone.current world news
He took the hotel number from the Bangla TV channel. They wanted to meet me but I was tired. Also had to attend a conference the next day so could not schedule an appointment.
Two days later, while I was waiting for Asma Jahangir and Maniza Hashmi in the hotel lobby to return to Islamabad, Mahmud and his wife Nasreen came there. Nasreen Sahib started speaking Punjabi with me.current world news
It turned out that she was born in Lahore. Dad was a government officer and his posting was done in Islamabad. In 1970, he met Mahmud in Islamabad, whose father was an officer at a government bank.
See also: Hamid Mir's previous column 'Red Light'
Both were engaged a few months before the 1971 Pak-India war. Then came the 16th of December. Pakistan is broken. Mahmud moved with his family to Dhaka but did not break the established relationship with Nasreen.
In 1973, Nasreen arrived in London from Islamabad and Mahmud from Dhaka. They both married in London and lived there. Now the duo sometimes come to Dhaka and Lahore to meet their relatives.
Then Mahmud took a telephone number from me and I left for the airport. The two met in London two years ago, and they said they know three or four couples whose marriages took place in the United Pakistan when the marriage broke down when Pakistan broke down.
I also knew a woman who is Punjabi and still lives in Dhaka with her Bengali husband. I wanted to bring their story to the media but they refused because they were worried that their children would not have problems.current world news
Mahmud and Nasreen Sahib expressed their desire in London to meet with four other couples and write a book. I liked their idea, but it was necessary to stay in London because other couples were also based in the UK. I found a Bengali friend more suitable for work in Cambridge.
I contacted Mahmud's friend and returned to Pakistan. Now, two years later, Mahmud was visiting me in Islamabad. Some were also ill but were in Egypt to book their love story with Nasreen and complained that your friend ran away because she was afraid of Hussein Wajid.
I did not understand how Hussein Wajid could object to these love stories. I told Mahmood about a book by Colonel ZI Farrukh that was published in 2018 titled "Scatter." Colonel Farrukh arrived in Dhaka from the Baloch Regiment in 1970 on transfer to East Pakistan Rifles and here he fell in love with a Bengali girl, Sonia.current world news
This love continued after December 16, 1971. Colonel Farkh was Captain at that time. When he arrived in India's prisons as a prisoner of war, there he was also interrogated for his love. He returned to Pakistan in 1974. After some time, with the help of their commanding officer, Colonel Shujauddin Butt, they searched for Sonia, but she was not found.
I told Mahmood that you were lucky to find lost love in Islamabad to London but many people, including Colonel Farrukh, did not regain their love. Mahmud said that there has been talk to a publisher in London, you only have to take a month's leave.
The couple is to meet in the UK, a couple from Dhaka and a couple from Karachi. Nasreen said, "We will help you. We want the new generation of Pakistan and Bangladesh to look back on their past and find some love stories not only from their past hatred."
Nasreen was telling that her daughter was also married in Dhaka. December 16 is celebrated as "Victory Day" at the school her children attend. One day the daughter told her mother
