Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said his ministry will honor to all diplomats those had declared their allegiance to Bangladesh during the War of Liberation in 1971 by writing their names in golden letters at the foreign office premises.
“We will honor them (defected diplomats) marking the 50 years of our great independence,” he said while addressing virtually from Singapore at a function marking the Foreign Service Day.
On this day in 1971, Bangladeshi diplomats and staffs stationed in Calcutta took over the then Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner’s Office and hoisted the Bangladesh national flag atop and thus established the first Bangladesh Mission abroad, one day after the Bangladesh government was officially established in Mujibnagar.
The foreign minister said this day is very significant for the independent and sovereign country of Bangladesh.
Dr Momen said the former foreign minister A H Mahmood Ali as the first diplomat in USA expressed his allegiance to Bangladesh government on April 26 in 1971 who was followed by former finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on 6th June and another 22 diplomats in Washington DC on August 1st.
“Their allegiance to Bangladesh government put the then Nixon administration in an awkward position during our liberation war,” he said.
He said all the defected Bangladeshi diplomats had made a huge contribution to building world opinion in favour of the right cause of independent Bangladesh.
State Minister Md Shahriar Alam spoke as the special guest while foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen gave the welcome speech.
Former foreign minister AH Mahmud Ali, former ambassador Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Waliur Rahman also spoke, among others.
The current government declared April 18 as “Foreign Service Day in 2019.
On April 18 in 1971, the group of Bangladeshi diplomats and officials led by Deputy High Commissioner Md. Hosen Ali and Third Secretary Anwarul Karim Chowdhury declared their allegiance to Bangladesh government declared the then Pakistani Deputy High Commission in Kolkata as ‘Bangladesh Diplomatic Mission’, which later became ‘Bangladesh Foreign Office’ in Kolkata.
Prior to 18th April, to be specific, on 6th April 1971, two brave Bangladeshi diplomats, Second Secretary K. M. Shehabuddin and Assistant Press Attach of the then Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi Amzadul Haq defected and declared their allegiance to Bangladesh and opened the Diplomatic Front of the glorious Liberation War even before the establishment of the Mujibnagar Government on 17th April.
