Kolkata

KOLKATA: History repeated itself on Thursday afternoon when the national flag of Bangladesh was hoisted at the Bangladesh deputy high commission office in the city. On April 18, 1971, the flag of the provisional government in Bangladesh had fluttered for the first time outside the country at the high commission office in the city.  

A provisional government was being formed under Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1971after the liberation war had come to an end.  

Some notes from M Hossain Ali, the then deputy high commissioner of Pakistan in Kolkata were found and they give a vivid picture of the April 17 night when the provisional government was formed in Meherpur district of Bangladesh.

Bangabandhu, who was in prison, was declared the president and Tajuddin Ahmad the first prime minister of the government in exile.  

Even before the provisional government took oath in Meherpur, a meeting took place in Kolkata on April 15, 1971. Ali met Ahmad in Kolkata near Park Circus. They discussed a plan about the provisional government and then headed to a restaurant near Outram Ghat.  

On Thursday, four officials of the Bangladesh deputy high commission office carried the flag to the mast before deputy high commissioner Toufique Hasan hoisted it.