‘First the headlines...’

by Robab Rosan

‘It is really astonishing that the man, who installed the transmitter dismantled from the Kalurghat Radio Station, was not an engineer. He was simply a technical operator in the station. This man, Rashed, came to Chittagong from his home district Brahmanbaria. Like many others, he was committed to do something for the country.’
   Kamal Lohani recalled his sweet memories with the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. ‘A group of young and progressive people in Chittagong used the transmitter of Kalurghat Radio Station and named it the Swadhin Bangla Biplabi Betar Kendra. These far-sighted people considered the movement as a rebellion against the oppressors and to succeed they thought that a revolutionary radio station was a must.’
   ‘When they called Ziaur Rahman to declare the War of Independence on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibar Rahman on March 27, Zia told them not to use the word 'biplabi' or revolutionary; and since then it was called as the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra.’
   ‘They were ten in number and broke up into two groups. One entered into the deep forest of Bagafa in Tripura and the other group following a different route reached Agartala. The group that entered into Bagafa, took shelter in a BSF camp inside the forest and installed the transmitter there to run programmes.’

The first transmitter at Kalurghat Courteisy: Muktijuddha Jadughar

   ‘After taking oath on April 17 in 1971, the Prabasi Sarkar of Bangladesh asked the government of India for a 50 kw medium-wave transmitter to run a radio station. The Indian government allowed them to set up a studio but the transmission was in their hand. Thus the Kendra began its new journey from Kolkata on the occasion of Nazrul’s birthday on May 24.’
   ‘It was the continuation of the Swadhin Bangla Biplabi Betar Kendra, established by a group of young people from Chittagong Radio Station and others.’
   ‘The Kendra, which was a studio with two recording machines, was set up on Baliganj Circular Road in Kolkata. Later, we used one of our rooms as a studio and set up the recording machine because the volume of work had increased. These two studios were run with the artistes of Bangladesh, who had left the country,’ said Kamal Lohani and added, ‘I joined as a newsman and later became the news editor. One day, Aminul Haque Badshah saw me in front of the Bangladesh Embassy at Park Circus Avenue, and said, “Lohani bhai what are you doing here?” It was sometime in May, perhaps a couple of days before the transmission started. He brought me to the studio and placed me there. I was then the secretary general of the East Pakistan Journalist Union.’
   Kamal Lohani informed that first of all they started with news bulletins in Bangla, ganasangeet, recitation and kathika. ‘We approached some of our intellectuals who were in Kolkata, including Zahir Raihan, Towab Khan, Salimullah, Faiz Ahmed, MR Akhtar Mukul and got them involved in the programme of kathika.’
   ‘By this time, we started news bulletin in three languages, Bangla, Urdu and English. Alamgir Kabir looked after the English news and other programmes and Zahid Siddique of Mymensingh looked after the Urdu programmes. These programmes were based on the Bangla programmes, which I was looking after. In the beginning, I also compiled the English news and read it too with the request of Patua Quamrul Hasan; these bulletins were transmitted three times a day.’
   Lohani also mentioned his friends fighting in the frontiers who gave them information about the war. ‘For us at the radio, it was a psychological warfare so we could say things to boost up people’s morale. We used to monitor all the radios, including, Voice of America, BBC, Radio Australia, Pakistan Radio, Akashbani, and others. The Indian army also gave us relevant information,’ said Kamal Lohani and added, ‘we had a good number of artistes in Kolkata. The artistes of the roving cultural troupes, who used to sing in the camps, often came to participate.’
   ‘I collected some lyrics from Gobinda Haldar, including, Mora ekti phool ke banchabo bole, Purba digante surja uthechhe and others. Haldar told one of my friends that he has written some lyrics on the liberation movement and if we were interested he could give us some of his lyrics for the Kendra. Apple Mahmud composed and sang some of them. We also took songs from the Indian People's Theatre Association.’ Relevant to mention that Kamal Lohani is now working on his autobiography.