A Passage to Freedom : The Story of an Adventurous Escape of a Bengali Family from Pakistani Captivity

Contents: Foreword. Introduction. 1. Prelude to the war of independence in Bangladesh. 2. The war of independence and the emergence of Bangladesh. 3. Our stay in Karachi. 4. The position of the Bengalis in Pakistan after the independence of Bangladesh. 5. The plan of escape. 6. Preparations for departure. 7. A Bombshell to our plan. 8. The revised plan. 9. The journey from Karachi to Quetta. 10. Our stay in Quetta. 11. The journey from Quetta to Kandahar. 12. Our stay in Kandahar. 13. From Kandahar to Kabul. 14. From Kabul to Delhi. 15. The last leg of our journey. Acknowledgements. Index.

"With the surrender of the Pakistani Armed Forces in Dhaka in 1971, the Bengali population residing in Pakistan (former West Pakistan) practically became hostages overnight in a country which had once belonged to them. They were allowed neither to move freely within Pakistan nor to leave the country. Their only option was, therefore, to flee from there deceiving the police and the border security guards. A Passage to Freedom is an enchanting description of an arduous journey of a Bengali family who escaped from Pakistani captivity and returned to Dhaka through Afghanistan and India. It narrates many exciting and often scary incidents encountered by the family during their long journey through the planes of Sind and the mountains of Baluchistan.

The narration also includes an account of the war of independence in Bangladesh and descriptions of several historical events, both past and recent, that will enthrall the readers, the younger generations in particular." (jacket)