Biography

On the night of March 15, 1971, K.M. Shehabuddin, a young Pakistan Foreign Service Officer, was posted in Delhi. The news that filtered in from East Pakistan led him to renounce his allegiance to Pakistan and pledge loyalty to the unborn state of Bangladesh. The first career diplomat to join the war - even before the formation of the Mujibnagar Government - he became the first head of Bangladesh's Delhi mission. From April to October 1971, he played a leading role on the diplomatic front of the liberation war.

Stephen Hatch-Barnwell’s (1909-1989) Tour of Duty as ICS (Indian Civil Service) in Bengal (1933-1947) as CSP (Civil Service of Pakistan) in East Pakistan (1949-1966) is not just another British officer’s “notes to successors” for those of us who care to read such memoirs. The author makes it a point to inform the readers that his main purpose was to show what life was for a young ICS officer in the very last days of the British Raj and not to give a personal life history to the readers.

This account of a former diplomat brings forth new information on some of the important events of history that touches two South Asian nations, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The author had the privilege of witnessing events, which made history. It is a narration of events which took place over the past fifty years. Of the makers of history, the foremost is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder of independent Bangladesh. It is the fulfillment of a thousand year old dream nourished in every Bengali heart, come true.

Pakistan's first military ruler, Mohammad Ayub Khan, was born in 1907, in the village of Rehana, near Haripur. In 1951, he became the country's first Pakistani Commander-in-Chief, and subsequently served as defence minister in the second cabinet of Mohammad Ali Bogra. On declaration of martial law by Iskander Mirza on 7 October 1958, he was made the chief martial law administrator. Less than three weeks later, after deposing Iskander Mirza in a bloodless coup, Ayub Khan became the president of Pakistan on 27 October 1958.