{"id":33282,"date":"2017-05-16T06:19:14","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T06:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=33282"},"modified":"2017-05-16T06:19:14","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T06:19:14","slug":"abdul-gaffar-choudhury-zia-wanted-to-divorce-khaleda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=33282","title":{"rendered":"Abdul Gaffar Choudhury: Zia wanted to divorce Khaleda"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Zia_Khaleda_Courtesy\"Gen Zia reportedly told Lt Col MA Qadir: \u201cThere is no guarantee that Bangladesh will win independence \u2026 I'm not with you.\u201d<\/h2>\n
BNP-founder Ziaur Rahman wanted to divorce his wife Khaleda Zia after the Liberation War, claims veteran journalist and writer Abdul Gaffar Choudhury.<\/div>\n
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But Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman saved their marriage, he told a programme in London last week, reports Bornomala news.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Khaleda Zia repeatedly refused to leave the Pakistan army-controlled cantonment, Gen Zia told me that he would divorce her after the war. But that did not happen thanks to Bangabandhu\u2019s intervention,\u201d Gaffar said.<\/p>\n

The journalist also recalled his time spent with Zia in 1971 when speaking at a programme to unveil \u201cLiberation War: Unknown Chapters\u201d by Nadeem Qadir, press minister at Bangladesh High Commission in London.<\/p>\n

Zia took part in the Liberation War as a sector commander, became the chief of army after independence and went on to become a military dictator after Bangabandhu\u2019s assassination. Bangabandhu\u2019s self-confessed killers Faruk and Col Abdur Rashid had told Anthony Mascarenhas that Zia knew about the coup<\/a> beforehand.<\/p>\n

Zia, who went on to found the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, appointed Bangabandhu\u2019s killers at foreign missions after assuming power. He also gave Jamaat-e-Islami, the party which openly opposed independence, a chance to resume political activities in independent Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Khaleda has been the BNP chief after her husband\u2019s assassination in 1981. She has maintained close ties with Jamaat and gave Cabinet berths to war criminals when she was the prime minister.<\/p>\n

In his book \u201cLiberation War: Unknown Chapters,\u201d Nadeem Qadir details his family\u2019s search for the grave of his father martyred Lt Col M Abdul Qadir.<\/p>\n

The grave of Lt Col Qadir\u2019s was finally found in 2007, eight years after the death of Nadeem\u2019s mother Hasna Hena Qadir. He was buried again with full state honour at Natore\u2019s Qadirabad Cantonment.<\/p>\n

Nadeem quotes his mother in the book as saying that Gen Zia had told Lt Col Qadir: \u201cThere is no guarantee that Bangladesh will win independence \u2026 I\u2019m not with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gen Zia reportedly told Lt Col MA Qadir: \u201cThere is no guarantee that Bangladesh will win independence \u2026 I’m not with you.\u201d BNP-founder Ziaur Rahman wanted to divorce his wife Khaleda Zia after the Liberation War, claims veteran journalist and writer Abdul Gaffar Choudhury. But Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman saved their marriage, he told a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":33283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n