Strand One Profiles and Interviews - Mr. Sultan Shariff
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 Mr. Sultan Shariff Interview date: 16 _ Jan _ 06 Interviewed by: Jamil Iqbal
Mr. Shariff is the Advisor of UK Awami League. A political activist who came
to Britain in the early 1960s.He was involved in the demands of the Bengali
people back home. As an Awami League campaigner he organised and led
demonstration in the UK. He demanded autonomy for East Pakistan.
Mr. Sultan Shariff
Q: Do you feel that the independence war is part of your history?
SS: Yes I do, because this war was fought to relief us, relief our people from the hands of thousands of years of oppression, by various rulers. All are foreign and alien to our people, all against the wishes of our people and all to deprive us of our rights—financially, economically, physically as well as association rights along with the rights to develop ourselves to our fullest potential.
Q: Did you participate in any of the campaigns in London during or just before the war?
SS: Yes. Because before the war of liberation for quite a long time, I was associated with the rights of our people back in the then Pakistan, their democratic right. As you well know, that after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, until 1971 in Pakistan, there was never an election, election to parliament, which could rule the people in a democratic way. It took until 1956 to give the country a constitution, which was again, on the basis of some provincial elections (held in 1954) and the old representatives from pre-partition days of (1947) days. As a result that representation gave the 1956 constitution, which was not even, up to the desire of the people of the various provinces of Pakistan. The semblance of a constitutional right, on which there would have been an election in 1959, election all over Pakistan that was even stopped by Ayub Khan in 1958. As a result Pakistan didn’t have a chance to give an election to its people. The military rulers after that ruled Pakistan, by decree, by marshal law, by various other peripheral laws and orders and instructions, outside the preview of any wish of the people. That alone was the bone of contention of the entire people of the then Pakistan.
Sultan Shariff addressing Awami League meeting, 2006 |
People of Pakistan in all areas were actually under the thumb of the military rulers, the civil bureaucrats, the military bureaucrats and the rich people, people who became rich after the creation of Pakistan, by looting the wealth of the ordinary people. The Bengalis (East Pakistanis) had a lower deal then the Punjabis (West Pakistanis) particularly, in the sense that the Bengal was ruled by-- district or subdivision or even thana level-- an alien administration that is the Pakistani administration. So there were more than their fair share of businesses and that came to a point long before even the military rule. When the Pakistanis, under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, declared that Urdu shall be the only state language of Pakistan, which was the language of only a small section of Pakistani population. That was totally rejected by the people of Bengal and there was agitation.
But the whole (of) Pakistan went into a boil, when Ayub Khan came to power and started ruling by decree, as I said earlier. We in Britain, as people who were involved in the demands of our people back at home, mainly demanded a constitution which will be for the entire population of Pakistan, the constitution that give autonomy to not only the region, the democracy that people expects. So that they can do or they can run their own affairs in their own way. And that was the main formula of Pakistan; obviously both West and East Pakistani people together were fighting for that. And in that we were demonstrating against Ayub Khan, on the independence day like 15th (14th) August, the Republic Day 23rd March, gathered together and demonstrated, and also on other days we demonstrated, demanding, Ayub Khan must give the country a democratic election on the basis of universal franchise.
In 1969, after the Agartala conspiracy case, in which the Bengalis who were the servants to the military people and the other people were involved, according to the Pakistani rulers. This (Agartala case) was against the (Bengali) military people basically, but at the last stage of this they (Pakistanis) suddenly discovered that Sheikh Mujib was behind everything, and they put him with that trial, and the case was, the state verses Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. To the people of East Pakistan, the then East Pakistan people, it became a struggle against the government, which was Pakistani government. And at one stage of this movement, they (Pakistani govt) had to withdraw their false case and the condition became so bad that Sheikh Mujib was asked for a dialogue for the settlement of the future of Pakistan. And it was agreed that Pakistan would be given an election on the basis of one man one vote. The election result would be given by the ruler’s set time. In 1970 (December) there was an election all over Pakistan, in that in the 300 seats of the Pakistan parliament, the Awami League won the single majority of 167 seats. In a normal circumstance, this would have meant that, the military government should have invited Sheikh Mujib, the leader of the party to take over power and run as the prime minister of the country, that’s the Pakistan. Nothing happened in December, nothing happened in January, because they were dilly-dallying to hand over power. They gave a date, 3rd March 1971, for sitting of the parliament, to reassure the rulers that Sheikh Mujib has a majority. That 3rd March meeting, sitting of the parliament in Dhaka, 3 days ago without discussing with the leader of the opposition, without any notice or anything was cancelled creating a total outburst of protest in Bangladesh particularly in the Dhaka city. And people came out on the streets; nobody was there to accept any excuse by the (Pakistan) government. From 1st march to 25th march, that’s 25 days from then, East Pakistan was ruled by its elected representatives, headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose party also won the large majority seats in the provincial election if there was a government in Pakistan, East Pakistan provinces chief minister would have been from Awami League, so they were running the country. So Yahya Khan wanted to discuss the matter with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bhutto one of the stooges of Yahya Khan, who also won a single majority seat in Punjab but was in links with Yahya not to hand over power to Sheikh Mujib. The military was not willing, the two people, who were in charge of Pakistan at that time, resigned and Tikka Khan and some one else were brought in. One of them said, “We will not hand over power to those black (Bengalis are of darker complexion compared to Pakistanis) bustards” the language was exactly what I quote. And this was understood by everybody that the power will not be handed over to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On 23rd (March) night both Bhutto and Yahya, without telling Sheikh Mujib, what they were doing, fled to Pakistan and ordered his people (Pakistani army) to burn, loot or whatever is necessary to quell the people of East Pakistan. And the language was that, “Few thousand people will be murdered and the Bengalis will be quite”. That was Yahya’s own version, this is the only way to stop the Bengali agitation. They must be stopped and the only way is to loot. On 25th march night, in that situation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence, as would be evident by the report of the American field intelligence in Dhaka who sent a telex to its head office which is now open, which is now known to people, that Sheikh Mujib has declared independence naming his country as People’s Republic of Bangladesh, and asked his people to resist. You see a version of this in the next day in 26th March broadcast by the Bengali officers and the Awami League leaders in Chittagong from a radio station they all declared exactly that Sheikh Mujib has declared independence and has instructed, the instructions was given on 26th March, readout at .Kalurghat Betar Kendra (radio station) at that time.
We in England, on the first day of march or 28 February, we were in front of Pakistan High Commission demanding that, the session of the parliament must not be stopped, it should go on for that we had a demonstration on the 28 February which was Sunday 1971, in front of Pakistan High Commission. We gave a memorandum to the Pakistan High Commissioner requested him if this happens this will go against will of the Bengalis particularly and Pakistan and there will be no more Pakistan.
After the demonstration when we went home, the evening newspaper had news about it, in fact the parliament has been postponed sine die [indefinitely postponed] there will be no session on the 3rd March. We came back to Pakistan High Commission to protest against it, as young people the whole night we stood in front of Pakistan High Commission. Other people were also coming and gradually we decided that we will stay in front of the High Commission until the parliament opens, however long it takes, on second or third day people came from Birmingham and other areas and joined us, our local people came too, because after 1st March there was no telephone or other communication between East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and Britain. People didn’t know about their families in East Pakistan and we decided that we will stay in front of Pakistan High Commission. The month of March was cold, there were few cars and we rested for a while and came back outside, and we continued that till 25th March. Within this time 7th March came and Sheikh Mujib Rahman spoke about few conditions, about how to resolve the issue but nothing happened, on 25th March night also we were there. On 26th March evening we tried to take over Pakistan High Commission, because by that time the independence was declared and we felt that the High Commission which was originally given by a East Pakistani resident would be our property, anyway we failed, the High Commissioner was a Bengali by default, that is he is a domiciled Bengali though he was from East Pakistan quota, he went for West Pakistan, his name was Salman Ali. The High Commissioner and the Deputy High Commissioner didn’t come with us, so the High Commission was Pakistan’s property. And our people were arrested, some of them were imprisoned and we couldn’t take over the High Commission. That was 26th March, after that we based our work outside East London, but we started gathering people, we had Trafalgar Square booked for the next Sunday, for a meeting, so we used as a mammoth public meeting. The next Saturday that was the 3rd of April, the Bengali women came out in demonstration at King’s Cross station, then Embankment station, and from there they came to Hyde Park station, from where they walked down to Buckingham Palace, to give petition, demanding that Pakistan government should stop torturing women and children, which they were doing from 25th March. In the mean time Abu Sayeed Choudhury, who was at that time in Geneva attending a human rights conference, came to London, and joined the movement, that gave the movement a different dimension in the sense that we had a international well-known person, the person who could reach everybody he wanted to speak for the Bengalis, and we were also in contact with the Mujibnagar Government (Bangladesh government in exile). Mr Tajuddin (exile govt Prime Minister) was in touch with us and we were in contact with him. After that, the movement continued and it gained strength. In about 3weeks time we had about 50 to 60 Action Committees all over United Kingdom. Anywhere there were 10 or 15 people, or even 5 people in any area, we asked them to form an Action Committee in that area. So we enlisted everybody to work together.
And every Sunday there was demonstration, either in London or in Birmingham or in Manchester or in Oldham or in Cardiff or in other towns, of Bengalis demanding the release of Sheikh Mujib, demanding (to) stop genocide in East Pakistan, and demanding withdrawal of Pakistan forces from East Pakistan. And that continued for the whole nine months (March-Dec). In the mean time, with the leadership of Abu Sayeed Choudhury they (Bengalis) formed a Steering Committee of the Action Committees. And everybody who were outside Bangladesh, or anybody who could come out of Bangladesh, who didn’t go to cross the border on the other side joined the Mukti Fouj (freedom fighters) in that area, they all came and contacted us or whoever came out of Europe or other places (it was Farid Ahmed’s younger brother, who was then with PIA) he contacted us, he was a freedom fighter. The Pakistan High Commissioner, Khan Ponni, he contacted us and he joined us in the fight. People who were in other countries like, the Bengalis in America, Bengalis in India, in England, Belgium, France, Italy, and Sweden or in Switzerland, everywhere, wherever there were one or two or five Bengalis were there, they united together, they contacted us we contacted them and we all were able to work together and because of the presence of Abu Sayeed Choudhury, it was easy for us.
Q: Were you one of the main people in the campaign?
SS: People who talk about the main, I am not one of them. I am a person who was in it all the time. Who is main person I don’t know. In my opinion, all the people who were here, except few Razakars (those who opposed the movements), very few of them were here. Like Barrister Azhar and such. All of us were together and working day and night, every Sunday and everyday. How it is everyday, that if you work for five days and you earn £10.00, that £10.00 was spent on the movement, by every family every person. People would come from Scotland, to attend a meeting in London that takes week’s wage, people who would come from Manchester to attend the meeting, the only day he has a day-off, Sunday. This is how it was everyday. And our people were working in the factories and other such institutions, they all came and everyday that was the only thing they were thinking. And that is, we were so determined.
Q: Can you tell me how much you raised in nine months being in London for the campaign?
SS: First thing is that, every penny people earned, they spent on the liberation war. On going on meetings on coming, nothing at home. So nobody saved any money in that time, and the fund which was raised was a big figure, which was the first money for the government of Bangladesh. Bangladesh government had no foreign exchange, which was the first foreign exchange from the money we raised.
The fact is only people, the entire people worked, it is not one person out of ten thousand people, every body who had stake there (Bangladesh), that means home, heart, family, brothers and sisters. The only thing they were dreaming of were, will they be ever able to meet them if the Pakistan army wins. No, so they have to do or spent everything possible to free it from the Pakistanis and that is what every body was doing.
Q: Do you celebrate Independence Day and Martyrs Day?
SS: Yes, there is a Shahid Minar here in London.
Q: What do you have to say about the younger generation, about the independence war or the independence movement?
SS: Well this is their country, if there is anything wrong, they have to fight to right it. They have to fight to put constitution, their rights, citizen’s rights, they have to fight for it. You won’t get anything without fighting for your rights, whatever we have done and whatever we could. In 1971 the country was full of Razakars and freedom fighters. And today again the country is full of Razakars and freedom fighters. That time we defeated the Razakars, this time they will have to defeat the Razakars. This is simple and there is nothing in between. Either they rule or the people rule. If you want to release tension then you will have to have a democratic structure, there is minimum tension when there is a democratic structure and there is maximum tension when there is highest conflict. In the highest conflict, people are divided into two houses and those who are not friends of us, they want to split us, want to split the people and because they are incapable, just like olden days, the muscle men will always win. They are incapable of using their brain, they use their thuggish power.
Q: What do you think about the situation of Bangladesh?
SS: Bangladesh will come out of it and our children have a duty to help bring a democratic situation, the best available thing. We will have to find out a democratic way of life.
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