On this day in 1971, amid the non-cooperation movement, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman met Yahya Khan for the second time in a meeting that went on for an hour.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman told the press after the meeting that until the nation’s goals were met the talks would continue.
After the meeting, when Bangabandhu returned to his house in Dhanmondi, a foreign journalist asked him why the meeting had been brief. In response, Bangabandhu didn’t say anything but only smiled a little.
Then the journalist questioned again: “What can we perceive from this smile?”
Then Bangabandhu replied: “There’s a gentle smile on your face also and personally I can laugh from hell too.
“As I have said, I can laugh sitting inside hell. There is no other person who is happy like me now because seven and a half million people are supporting me. People gave me something which is incomparable,” the Father of the Nation said.
President Yahya Khan also invited People’s Party Chairman ZA Bhutto to Dhaka.
A third meeting was scheduled between Bangabandhu and Yahya.
