Forty-three years after the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, a cross-country history project is underway to record facts and documents connected with it.
The India-Bangladesh History Project, led by Haroon Habib, a leading Bangladesh freedom fighter and well known writer and journalist, will document the historic role of the people and the government of India and the state governments and the people of the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal.
Habib is the former chief editor of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) and recipient of the Bangla Academy award.
Habib was here on Monday to interact with a select group of intellectuals and media personalities in the Guwahati Press Club.
Haroon Habib
The project is supported by the India-Bangladesh Foundation (IBF), the official body formed in Feb 2013 with the objective of fostering bilateral relations, for greater understanding between the people of the two countries.
A Central Board of Editors comprising of the eminent personalities in India and Bangladesh will oversee the publication of the historical documents in several volumes, Habib said.
Eminent Assamese writer and former bureaucrat, JP Saikia, a recipient of the Friends of Bangladesh Liberation War Award, is in the Central Editorial Panel of the project along with leading journalist-author Subir Bhaumik (former BBC bureau chief, Kolkata and now senior editor, bdnews24.com) and Satyabrata Chakrabarty (former Agartala correspondent of Statesman and leading poet of Tripura).
Top Indian editor Bharat Bhushan is also in the Board of Editors for the project.
Haroon Habib, the Chief Editor and Coordinator of the Project, requested all concerned persons and organizations of Assam and Meghalaya, which were part of the one greater state of Assam at that time, to extend all possible support to make the project a success. if they preserve any, relating to the 1971 events.
Source: Bd news24