- Abul Fateh
" documentary, "Running for Freedom".
Biography
Early years and education
Abul Fateh was born in
Kishorganj on16 May 1924 in a landowning family, to Abdul Gafur and his second wife Zohra Khatun. Fateh was a middle child, in a large family of a dozen children who survived to adulthood, while two other siblings died young. His father Abdul Gafur had attendedPresidency College, Calcutta , and was one of the first Muslim "daroga" (sheriffs) in British India. Fateh's mother Zohra was the daughter of a local nobleman. Fateh passed hisMatriculation exams from "Ramkrishna" High English School in Kishorganj in 1941. After passing his Intermediate exams from Ananda Mohan College inMymensingh in 1943, he undertook higher studies inEnglish Literature atDhaka University (BA Honours in 1946 and MA in 1947) where he also excelled in sport, for a time captaining thecricket team and becoming thetable tennis champion.Pakistani diplomat
While teaching English Literature at Brindaban College in
Sylhet , he took the firstForeign Service exams ofPakistan (1948), before teaching English Literature for a few months at Michael Madhusudhan Datta College inJessore . He joined the first batch of Pakistan Foreign Service trainees in 1949, moving toKarachi . Soon after he left for training inLondon , which included taking a special course at theLondon School of Economics , before he moved in 1950 toParis to complete his training. Returning briefly to Karachi, he was sent back (1951) to Paris asThird Secretary in the PakistanEmbassy .A further posting as Third Secretary followed in
Calcutta (1953–1956). During this time he married, at Rangpur on5 January 1956 , Mahfuza Banu ofDhubri ,Assam daughter of Shahabuddin Ahmed, a respectedlawyer and Mashudaa Banu a well known social campaigner. Then promoted toSecond Secretary , he served in the Pakistan Embassy inWashington, D.C. from 1956 to 1960, during which time he and his wife had their two sons, one of whom went on to become a magician and corporate entertainer,Eenasul Fateh .Fateh was a Director attached to the
Foreign Ministry in Karachi from 1960 to 1963, during which time he went for a year and a half (1962–1963) toGeneva as aFellow of theGraduate Institute of International Studies ("Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales") under a Carnegie fellowship.Further foreign postings followed. He was First Secretary (and latterly acting chief of mission) in
Prague from 1965 to 1966, Counsellor inNew Delhi from 1966 to 1967, and DeputyHigh Commissioner in Calcutta from 1968 to 1970. He received his first posting asAmbassador , at the Pakistan Embassy inBaghdad , in 1970.Bangladeshi independence
After the Pakistani military crackdown in March 1971, Fateh received a request from a former university dormitory mate,
Syed Nazrul Islam , nowActing President in theBangladesh government-in-exile , to join the liberation struggle.At about the same time, in July 1971, Fateh received a summons from the Pakistan Foreign Ministry to attend a conference in
Tehran of regional Pakistani ambassadors. He chose to take his official car ostensibly to drive to Tehran but, as he and his driver approached theIran -Iraq border, he feigned chest pains and ordered the driver to return him home, where he arrived that evening. Saying that he would take a plane the next day, he dismissed the driver. That night, he fled with his wife and sons across the border intoKuwait , from where they took a plane to London.The announcement of Fateh's
defection to the Bangladesh cause marked the first time a full ambassador had joined the fledgling Bangladeshdiplomatic service . [cite web|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/08/14/d708141503116.htm|title=My Homage to Ambassador Momin|date=2007-08-14|accessdate=2007-08-17|publisher="The Daily Star "|author=Syed Muazzem Ali] The news was received with fury by themilitary regime inIslamabad , which meanwhile had discovered that on the afternoon just before his supposed departure for Tehran, he had cleared out the Pakistan Embassy bank account in Baghdad to the benefit of the Bangladesh government. The military regime's requests to extradite him from London were rebuffed by theBritish Government . These events were chronicled in a 2003National Geographic Channel television documentary, "Running for Freedom."cite news|publisher=National Geographic Channel |url=http://www.ngcasia.com/watch/default.asp?Currentdate=2005-12-28 |title=Running for Freedom|year=2003]The Mujibnagar government made him ambassador-at-large, followed in August 1971 by the concurrent position of Advisor to the Acting
President , a position he was to resign in January 1972 after the return to Bangladesh of Bangabandhu SheikhMujibur Rahman . He had a leading role, as the Bangladesh movement’s senior-most diplomat, in a delegation under Justice Abu Sayed Choudhury which went to theUnited Nations inNew York to lobby for the Bangladesh cause. He was also in communication with other governments, such as the Nixon administration in the United States via the French consul. [cite web|url=http://www.profile-bengal.com/page160.html|title=Liberation War Documents '71|publisher=profile-bengal.com|accessdate=2007-08-17] [cite book|title=Bangladesh Liberation War and the Nixon House 1971|authors=Enayetur Rahim and Joyce L. Rahim|publisher=Pustaka Dhaka|pages=405-406] He was one of the first high officials to reachDhaka after its liberation, and was quartered with other senior officials inBangabhaban until January 1972. Already the effective head of the incipientforeign service , he becameForeign Secretary at the end of 1971. ["The Bangladesh Liberation War, Mujibnagar Government Documents 1971", edited by Sukumar Biswas (Dhaka: Mowla Brothers, 2005)]Bangladeshi ambassador
He then took up the position of Bangladesh’s first Ambassador in
Paris (1972-1976). [cite web|url=http://chan.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/sdx/pl/doc-tdm.xsp?id=FRDAFANCHSC_5AG2_G2907&fmt=tab&base=fa&qid=sdx_q0&n=3|title=Présentation du contenu|publisher=French National Archives|date=January-August 1972|accessdate=2007-08-17] The early part of this posting involved extensive travel in Africa to persuade African governments to recognise the independence of Bangladesh. In 1973 he represented Bangladesh at a Commonwealth conference forYouth Ministers inLusaka . In 1975 he went toMorocco and, at a time of a shortage in supply ofphosphates , managed to secure a substantial phosphate shipment for Bangladesh.In mid-1975 he was selected to be
High Commissioner in the UK, which post he took up in early 1976. His two years in London (1976-1977) saw him Chairing the Commonwealth Conference onHuman Ecology and Development and the Bangladesh government approved his recommendation thatdual citizenship be permitted. Many people from Bangladesh were settled in the UK, whose remittances into Bangladesh were an important source of foreign exchange. He pointed out that to oblige them to forgo Bangladesh citizenship if they took up the benefits of Britishnationality was not conducive to the continued maintenance of their ties to themother country .His last post was as Ambassador in
Algiers (1977–1982). He represented the Bangladesh government at conferences onNamibia in Algiers of the United Nations (1980) and the Non Aligned Conference (1981).Retirement
Retiring in 1982, he lived with his wife in Dhaka for ten years before they settled in London to be near their sons.
Recent Press
On December 13 2005 the leading Bangladeshi newspaper New Age mentioned Abul Fateh in a section about the 1971 war and the significance played by diplomats such as himself : "provided a huge boost to the liberation struggle by defecting from the service of Pakistan and declaring their allegiance to Bangladesh" (http://www.newagebd.com/2005/dec/13/edit.html).
On 23 March 2008 Abul Fateh is mentioned by several Bangladeshi television channels for his role in 1971 war.
Honours
*Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee Medal, 1975
Disambiguation note
Fateh's name is sometimes misspelled as Abdul Fateh.
See also
*
History of Bangladesh
*List of Bangladeshis Notes
References
*
Government of Bangladesh ,Ministry of Foreign Affairs : [http://www.mofa.gov.bd/foreign_secretary.htm Foreign Secretaries] .
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