Major Dalim’s ‘return’ causes churn in Bangladesh

As if Bangladesh didn’t have enough troubles on its plate, a man claiming to be Shariful Haque Dalim, the former Bangladesh Army officer convicted in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, has emerged out of the blue. Major Dalim, who has been in hiding for decades, decided to show up not in flesh, but digitally, in a social media interview from an undisclosed location. And his spin to Bangladesh’s early history has sparked a fresh churn in the country’s politics, polarising the nation still grappling with the turmoil that began five months ago.

For India, this is good news, a silver lining to its dark cloud over Bangladesh. Perhaps more people have lauded Dalim’s YouTube interview with journalist Elias Hossain – which reportedly drew over eight million views in 24 hours – than those who did not. But Bangladeshi citizens spoke out against the interview, condemning Dalim for his diatribe against Sheikh Mujib and India, among others. Perhaps not all is lost in the eastern front.

However, a large number questioned the man’s identity itself. Was the man spouting this “rubbish” really Dalim or an imposter, they asked. How do we know? He hasn’t been seen for decades. Why is he in hiding? A social media user mockingly called him a pomegranate (Dalim is Bengali for that fruit). Exiled author Taslima Nasrin, wrote on Facebook: “I usually never hate anyone. But for the interviewee and the interviewer, ‘kulangar’ (black sheep) Major Dalim and Ilias Hossain, I, with all my mind and heart, only feel ghrina (aversion)”.

The major’s diatribe

Sheikh Mujib was not assassinated but killed in a military uprising, Dalim claimed in the interview. “People don’t play with marbles in an uprising,” he said, suggesting Sheikh Mujib was killed in a fair exchange of fire with the rebel Army officers who stormed his Dhaka home on 15 August 1975. Nothing can be further from existing documentation, which record that a group of officers forced their way into the house and hunted down Sheikh Mujib and members of his family. His wife, brother, three sons and two daughters-in-law were shot dead. The youngest of the three sons, Sheikh Russel, was 10 years old. Some servants too were killed. The military detail posted at the house did not resist.

According to the major, India helped Bangladesh freedom fighters in 1971 only because it wanted to teach Pakistan a lesson – the Bangladesh cause was secondary and India merely wanted a vassal state to do its bidding. No nod to the fact that India lost thousands of soldiers on the eastern and western front before Pakistan surrendered on 16 December 1971.

General Ziaur Rehman, he claimed, was a serving officer at the time of the coup who swore on the Quran to participate in the uprising. But he gradually “betrayed the cause”, and distanced himself from it.

His most churlish comments were about Tagore. “In our country,” he raged, “though we had even better poets like Kazi Nazrul Islam, we thrust a song by an Indian upon our nation. Why? Nazrul was our national poet. Why was his song not our anthem?” Nazrul was born in West Bengal, and celebrated in both countries. He died in Dhaka and is buried there. Some members of his family still live in Kolkata.

Also read: How is Yunus distracting Bangladesh from holding elections? By trying to rewrite constitution

Who is Dalim?

Major Dalim was not in the death squad that assassinated Sheikh Mujib. While he was ordered to go to Sheikh Mujib’s home that fateful night, some reports claim he had declined the task. He famously went to Bangladesh Betar, the state radio station, to break the news to the world :  “Autocrat Sheikh Mujib has been killed. The army led by Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed has taken over power. Curfew has been declared.”

He prefaced the announcement with three words he came to be most remembered for: Major Dalim bolchi (Major Dalim speaking).

Through the military regimes that followed the assassination, Dalim was promoted to Lt Colonel and later sent as a diplomat to China, Hongkong and Kenya. He also served as the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). But once Sheikh Hasina became prime minister, he went underground. In her tenure, several people involved in the coup and assassination of her father were tracked down and sentenced to death. Major Dalim is one of the few who got away.

Will Dalim return to Dhaka now that Sheikh Hasina is gone? That is just one of many questions doing the rounds since the interview. He cannot do business with either Awami League or BNP.  So, if he returned, what would be his destination? The “king’s party” could be it. The BNP has publicly said it suspects such a party is being formed already to contest the elections whenever they are held. The king’s party is a term used for a political party that is backed by the state and contests polls on its behalf. Speculation is that such a party is on the anvil and will have the backing of the chief adviser, other agencies, and the powerful Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.

Did Jamaat encourage Elias Hossain, the non-resident journalist who interviewed Dalim, to give him a platform to resurface? Dalim could very well be part of a “Minus-two formula”, which envisions Bangladesh minus the two women –  Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina – who have ruled it for over 30 years. It was a formula that was reportedly attempted in 2007, allegedly by the caretaker government.

Sheikh Hasina is currently in India with no chance of returning to Dhaka anytime soon. And Begum Khaleda Zia left Dhaka for medical treatment in London shortly after the Dalim interview aired. No one knows when she will return. It is also uncertain when or if her son Tarique Rehman, BNP’s acting chairman who has been in self-exile in the United Kingdom, will return either.

Bangladesh’s future remains uncertain. Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus would have done well to push for elections as quickly as possible. But with December 2025 being touted as the earliest possibility, this year will be one of flux for Bangladesh and its neighbours.

Monideepa Banerjie is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal.

(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)