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Austin Macauley Publishers - MD Khawaja Azimuddin

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108 pages

English

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The Boy Refugee: A Memoir from a Long-Forgotten War is the story of a young refugee boy in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The story chronicles his escape from war-ravaged Bangladesh to the relative safety of a barbed-wired internment camp in the foothills of the Himalayas, his day-to-day life as a civilian prisoner of war, and his thousand-mile, two-year-long journey back to Pakistan.

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Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers
Date de parution	20 juin 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781645365969
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	11 Mo

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The Boy Refugee
Khawaja Azimuddin, MD
A Memoir from a Long-Forgotten War
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-06-20
The Boy Refugee About The Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgment Author’s Note Prologue 1. Trouble in the Land of Lazy Rivers 2. Adamjee Nagar 3. Amar Shonar Bangla 4. Ides of March 5. The War 6. The Fall of Dacca 7. A Narrow Escape 8. Back at The Cantonment 9. Refugees in Our Own Homeland 10. The Long Journey Begins 11. A Never-Ending Train Ride 12. Pow Cage #1, Camp #34 13. Colonel Harnam Singh 14. Settling in to Our New Life 15. Living in Oblivion 16. Prisoner of War Camps in India 17. A Kid’s Wonderful World 18. Eat, Play, Pray, Sleep 19. Life Goes On 20. The Long Days 21. Terrible Times 22. The World Outside Camp #34 23. The News Everyone Was Waiting For 24. The Preparations 25. Return 26. After the End 27. Epilogue Glossary
About The Author
Dr. Khawaja Azimuddin is a gastro-intestinal surgeon in Houston, TX. He specializes in minimally invasive robotic surgery for colon cancer. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, and the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh. Though he has authored numerous scientific research articles, medical book chapters, and a surgical reference book, this is his first non-scientific work. In his free time, Dr. Azimuddin is an avid ceramic tile artist and many of his large-scale murals are installed in public places. He uses his passion for arts to help build bridges between communities.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to refugees all around the world.
Copyright Information ©
Azimuddin, Dr. Khawaja (2020)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Austin Macauley is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone and portrayed to the best of their recollection. In some cases, names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Azimuddin, Dr. Khawaja
The Boy Refugee
ISBN 9781645361190 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781645361206 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645365969 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020904644
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
mail-usa@austinmacauley.com
+1 (646) 5125767
Acknowledgment
A special note of abounding gratitude to my parents, Mr. Khawaja Qumaruddin and Mrs. Fatima Qureshy Qumaruddin.

The Boy Refugee: A Memoir from a Long-Forgotten War is the story of a young refugee boy in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The story chronicles his escape from a war-ravaged Bangladesh to the relative safety of a barbed-wired internment camp in the foothills of the Himalayas, his day to day life as a civilian prisoner of war, and his thousand-mile and two-year-long journey back to Pakistan.
Author’s Note
The idea of writing a book about my childhood experience as a refugee and then a prisoner of war first came to me when my son began writing his undergraduate thesis about the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide. I grew up in East Pakistan and lived there until the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. I was witness to, both, the war and its aftermath. After the defeat of our Pakistani army and the surrender of Dacca, my family was taken as civilian prisoners of war by the Indian Army and I spent the next two years in a POW camp in India. As my son interviewed me about my first-hand experiences, these painful memories came so alive that I started writing my own experiences that I present, here, in this book. So, first and foremost, I must thank my son, Ahad Azimuddin, for inspiring me to tell my story.
After I was released from the POW camp, I spent my teenage years in Karachi, Pakistan, where, with my mother’s help, I fortunately wrote down some notes about our camp life. I have kept those notes all these years in my study, safe inside the little green suitcase that I carried with me the day of my release.

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Picture 01: My little green suitcase
Forty-eight years later, these notes came in very handy for completing my memoirs.
I want to thank my brother, Khawaja Nizamuddin, and my sister, Nafisa Tahera, for their contributions to this book. Especially to my brother, who spent a considerable amount of time correcting and proofreading the manuscript. They were older than me and their recollections helped me in completing this book.
I am grateful to my wife, Sama, who has let me take precious time away from her to pursue my passions, whether for ceramic art, surgery, or writing. Finally, I am thankful to my daughter, Anam, and her husband, Samir, for making my life complete.
I am also grateful to my friends Salahuddin Ayubi, Naeem Ahad, Arif Iqbal, Ras Siddiqui and Fasih Soherwardy, who, like me, were all young boys caught in the unfortunate events surrounding the 1971 war. They went through their own harrowing experiences, ones no child should ever have to suffer. I am thankful to them for sharing their stories, some, of which, have been used here.
While researching for this book, I connected with Dr. Moin Bhatti, who is a psychiatrist in California and whose late father Maj. Iftikhar-ud-Din Ahmad, who was a military POW and wrote about his personal experiences as a Pakistani soldier in a book Memories of a Lacerated Heart (1971): A War Memoir (From East Pakistan to Bangladesh). Dr. Bhatti who translated this book into English has provided me with valuable insight into the events surrounding his father’s war experience. Another veteran of the war is Colonel (Retd) Nazir Ahmed, who wrote about the war in his book, East Pakistan 1971-Distortion and Lies. I was able to speak with him extensively about his recollections of the 1971 war and its aftermath. I am also thankful to Colonel (Retd.) Raj Bhalla of the Indian Army, who fought the battle from the other side and provided me with the Indian perspective on the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war.
I was fortunate to reconnect with Mr. Abul Quddus Nagi who was the young and energetic cage commander of our POW group during the two years of imprisonment. I travelled to the small town of Cobourg, Canada to personally meet him and obtain first-hand knowledge about life in our camp. Mr. Quddus had thorough knowledge of everything that transpired in our camp since he was the civilian in charge of all the prisoners. While in Canada, I also hooked up with Mr. Shaukat Ali and his wife, Akhtar Sultana Ali, who were fellow prisoners and he had played an important part in the day to day life of our camp. I am grateful to these friends for providing me deeper insight into the events surrounding the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 and our two-year confinement.
Above all, I am indebted to my parents, Mr. Khawaja Qumaruddin and Mrs. Fatima Qureshy Qumaruddin, who protected their three children and kept us from harm during those troubled times. They had the foresight to escape to the Dacca cantonment and stay with the Pakistani Army, so that we were evacuated out of Bangladesh. They supported and nurtured us when we needed them most. They instilled, in us, our love of education and hard work and inspired me to be what I am today. Without their courage, I would have been lost, like so many others.
I would like to dedicate this book to all the refugees around the world. I sincerely pray that you find a new home, where you are welcomed and are able to pursue your dreams and aspirations. You have faced hardships few can endure and your experiences have made you strong and resilient. Now, you are ready to face the world and make your mark. Through hard work, dedication, and education, you will find that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that the future is bright and promising for you and your children.
Prologue
The Boy Refugee: A Memoir from a Long-Forgotten War is the story of my childhood caught in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. It is the story of my parent’s resolve to escape certain doom, our two-year imprisonment in India, our day-to-day life in a POW camp, and our eventual repatriation to Pakistan.
It is a story of chaos, oppression, atrocities, revenge, despair, and adversity. But it is also a story of compassion, as shown by the enemy who saved us, protected us, and provided for us for two years. It is a story of human resilience and of strangers coming together. Above all, it is a story of hope.
The 1971 war between India and Pakistan is a unique event. History has no parallel, in which, almost a hundred thousand prisoners of war were interned in camps for two years and then transported a thousand miles across land to be returned to their country. I have attempted to bring this unusual story to the readers.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 resulted in, both, the independence of Bangladesh and the dismemberment of a united Pakistan. For the Bengalis, it was occasion for great jubilation and celebration but to Pakistan, it was a great loss and a sad chapter in the country’s history. Both si