Dhaka [Bangladesh], June 29 (ANI): Julian Francis, a true friend of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War who managed relief for refugees in the border regions, is now recalling those historic days. He emphasised that the assistance extended by the Indian government and its people at the time was extraordinary and profoundly significant.
“They [India] supported greatly, and, of course, a lot of armed forces personnel lost their lives. The way the government supported, that was important,” Julian Francis told ANI.
“So many memories of 1971, when Oxfam looked after 600,000 or so Bangladeshis in different parts of the border areas with India. The situation was extremely difficult, with a lot of misery and a lot of death, but there was also a lot of hope and resilience,” he added.
“The incident was in the Jalpaiguri area of North Bengal. There, a person came and said, ‘Hindus live here, and Muslims live over there.’ Then, a Muslim man, who was about 50 years old, stood up and said, ‘Excuse me, we have been living together for generations, and we will stay together, and we will go back together.’ That was amazing,” Julian Francis, a British citizen who worked for Oxfam, said.
“There was a lot of depression among the refugees at that time. So, a doctor came and said, ‘Bring a harmonium and a tabla.’ I brought 100 sets of harmoniums and tablas, and they performed songs of Rabindranath Tagore and others. In this way, they alleviated the depression,” he said.
As a 26-year-old Oxfam coordinator, Julian Francis managed relief operations for over 600,000 Bangladeshi refugees across more than 50 camps in Indian border states, fighting severe resource shortages and a deadly cholera outbreak.
Operating on the front lines, he witnessed firsthand how the Indian government and its citizens provided extraordinary, monumental assistance, opening their borders to 10 million refugees and offering critical logistical support to the liberation cause.
For his lifelong devotion to the country, Bangladesh honoured him with the “Friends of Liberation War Honour” in 2012 and later granted him official Bangladeshi citizenship in 2018. (ANI)
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