It is with a sense of pride and honour that I recollect the events of March 30, 1971 at Jashore Cantonment. My father, Lt Col. Syed Abdul Hai, was commissioned into the Army Medical Corps (AMC) in 1950. He was posted on deputation to the Ghana Army from 1965 to 1969. Being abroad cultivated his perspective that the emancipation and economic development of East Bengal was not well-served within the existing political construct of Pakistan.

My father had no interest in participating in Ayub Khan's 1965 misadventure against India. When the Pakistan Army recalled him in September 1965, he managed to avoid going back. The Six-Point Programme launched under the leadership of Bangabandhu, combined with the Agartala initiative, resonated with my father's pro-Bengali thinking and beliefs.