Shiekh Hasina, who will take over the reins of Bangladesh government as their new Prime Minister, has links with Delhi. Her links with the city date to India’s Emergency days and her life when she was still to enter active politics.
Hasina came to the city the year her father and founder of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was killed in Dhaka, alonmg with his wife and three sons. The killings took place on August 25, 1975. Hasina and her younger sister escaped death because they were in Germany at that time.
Hasina, who camped in Delhi for more than five years, moved here in the later part of December 1975. She first lived at 56 Ring Road, Lajpat Nagar, and then at Pandara Park with her nuclear scientist husband M. Wajed and children Sajeeb and Saima Putul. She lived in Delhi till 1981.
According to writer Arbindo Ghosh, unlike her father, Hasina was more or less apolitical when she came to Delhi. Rehman was a fiery political leader since his college days in Calcutta.
Those were also the days when Emergency was imposed in India.
{{/usCountry}}Those were also the days when Emergency was imposed in India.
{{/usCountry}}She was always surrounded by security guards. Leaders of Bangladesh Awami League visited her to persuade her to take the reins of the party. She was elected the head of the League while in exile in India.
It is learnt that while Hasina was in Delhi, a person by the name of A.L. Khatib worked as her assistant. Khatib had also authored one book ‘Who killed Mujib’. Vikas Publication had published the book.
President of Hindustan Football Club D.K. Bose had met her during her stay here at Pandara Park. “Our meeting with her was organised by an academician from Dhaka University. Though it was a brief meeting, we had discussed the state of Bangladesh and Bangla literature at length. She was still to reconcile with the tragic events in Bangladesh.”