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Enayetullah Khan: An icon of journalism
Md. Shaheduzzaman
My father used to subscribe and read the then Pakistan Observer (later The Bangladesh Observer), the weekly Holiday and the Reader’s Digest in particular. On his insistence I started reading newspapers in my High School days. And by the time I was in the 9th Grade of High School, I developed a passion for the weekly Holiday, though most of the words used in the write-ups of Mr. A.Z.M. Enayetullah Khan were not familiar to me at that age. I used to take almost the whole week looking up his words in the dictionary and trying to comprehend his write-ups by reading repeatedly. I felt an urge to enrich my knowledge in English language and was inspired to match Mr. Enayetullah Khan’s vocabulary which I am yet to do. His writings also inspired me to be a journalist.
In 1972, I got an opportunity to work as an apprentice Sub-Editor of Bangla daily Dainik Bangladesh published from Borga, when I had to translate national and international news in Bangla received from the national news agency BSS through teleprinter. In 1975, I became the Rajshahi University Correspondent of The Bangladesh Times. Mr. A.Z.M. Enayetullah Khan was then its Editor. Finally, I was appointed as staff correspondent of the daily.
In 1976 I was then the Rajshahi University Correspondent of The Bangladesh Times and President of the Rajshahi University journalists’ Association. About a week before the historic Farakka Long March I phoned Mr. Enayetullah Khan, then The Bangladesh Times editor if he would come to Rajshahi for the Long March. He sounded very excited and enthusiastic. He told me he would come to Rajshahi at least a couple of days before the Long March would start.
Mr. Enayetullah Khan, or Mintu Bhai, as he was popularly known, accompanied by his good friend Mr. Anwar Hossain Monju, then Editor of the daily “Ittefaq,” reached the Rajshahi Circuit House in the afternoon of the appointed day. I, along with the Times’ Rajshahi Correspondent Mr. Anjum Ferdous, received Mintu Bhai at the Circuit House. He was in his traditional Khaddar punjabi and jeans trouser. His punjabi was completely drenched by his sweat as he had personally drove his car from Dhaka. But he was so excited and enthusiastic that, to my surprise, without taking any food or rest after such a long drive, said: “Now I would like to call on Maulana Shaheb (Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani) and then visit the marchers wherever they have gathered in the city for the Farakka Long March. Please take me there.”
We drove straight to the advocate’s residence in a jeep. Mintu Bhai, along with Mr. Anwar Hossin Monju followed us in his car. After meeting Maulana Shaheb, we all visited each and every place where the excited and enthusiastic marchers from all over the country had gathered. An excited and enthusiastic Mintu Bhai talked to the marchers and discussed about the Long March.
As we all returned to the Circuit House at night, Mintu Bhai looked even more excited and enthusiastic about the march scheduled to start couple of days later. I could sense his degree of patriotism.
Meanwhile, The Bangladesh Times team from Dhaka, comprising Special Correspondent Amin Ahmed Chowdhury, Assistant Editor Mustafa Jasim Ahmed and Senior Staff Photographer Rafiqur Rahman, arrived at Rajshahi to cover the event. The Times’ team was the biggest among the local and foreign media teams to cover the Long March. Obviously, this was because of the importace Mintu Bhai had attached to the Farakka Long March - a historic event drawing international attention.
As planned, the Times’ team left Rajshahi city early next morning for a visit to the Bangladesh- India border areas. They returned to the city in the afternoon and reported their findings to Mintu Bhai, who asked them to write the story and send it telegraphically to Dhaka with a note that “the Editor has okayed this.” Mintu Bhai, being the competent editor of the state-run national daily, was sure that the daily’s News Editor in Dhaka office would need the editor’s approval to publish the sensitive news story that it was.
The next day’s issue of The Bangladesh Times carried on the front page an exclusive news item titled “India amasses troops along border” to the envy of all other local and foreign media representatives who had gathered at Rajshahi to cover the Long March, but did not conceive of such a probability.
Though Mintu Bhai was the editor of The Bangladesh Times, his feelings and magnanimity were not limited to the Times staffers only. He allowed other newsmen also to share the Times’ vehicle meant for the Times’ staffers only.
On the Farakka Long March day, Maulana Bhasani addressed a mammoth public meeting at the Rajshahi Madrasa maidan prior to leading the long march. Sensing that most of the marchers were in a mood to march to the “Farakka Barrage” itself, located in the Indian territory, the Maulana made it absolutely clear that they would go only up to the border and not cross the border.
Mintu Bhai and the Times’ team had covered the march and returned to Rajshahi Circuit House in the evening. After washing his face and having a cup of tea, Mintu Bhai told me: “Shahed, go to Atiq (Atiqul Alam of BBC) and tell him that I have requested him to give me his typewriter.” I complied with his request and so did Mr. Atiqul Alam. After finishing with his typewriter, Mr. Atiq offered it to Mintu Bhai, who told me: “You people write your stories and come back to me before you go to the telegram office to file your stories.”
When I returned to Mintu Bhai about a couple of hours later, he gave me his write-up to be sent to Dhaka. By mid-night, all our stories and Mintu Bhai’s commentary were sent telegraphically to Dhaka.
Next day, as desired by Mintu Bhai him, I rushed to the newspaper agent in the city and bought several copies of the Times. While going through his write-up, Mintu Bhai occasionally uttered “Uooh” which, I was later told by him, was to express his annoyance for replacement of words in his write-up. The Dhaka office replaced words, apparently because of the typing (telegraphic) error. However, what amazed me was the sharp memory of Mintu Bhai, who remembered the words he had chosen and used in his write-up.
Later, as I read Mintu Bhai’s write-up titled “Palassy to signal victory this time” which covered almost 75% space of both the front and the back pages of the Times, I was overwhelmed to discover the depth of his knowledge, his ability to conceive ideas as well as his flare in writing. I wondered how, in about an hour and a half, he could conceive ideas and the context and produce the unique master-piece write-up, which would have taken some writers hours or even days to write and certainly would not be able to match his quality. I would like to retain this image of him as long as I live - a brilliant Mintu Bhai producing a master-piece write-up within no time.
I have not been in the profession of journalism ever since I resigned from the Times in 1982. Neither have I been able to be in regular contact with the journalist community due to my preoccupation as a Business Executive. It was my nephew Riad Hassan, who phoned me on 10th November, 2005 evening to inform me about the demise of the weekly Holiday Editor-in-Chief and the daily New Age Editor Mr. Enayetullah Khan. Riad, who has just completed his MBA from the Dhaka University and was aware of my great admiration for Mr. Khan.
I hardly missed his write-ups. From the media reports, I was aware of his illness and his on-going treatment in Canada. But, as he kept writing from his sick-bed in Canada for his newspapers, I was under the impression that he was recovering slowly but steadily and would return to Dhaka fully cured in near future. So, the news of his demise came to me as a bolt from the blue and I was deeply saddened. My instant reaction was: “Alas, the great people don’t live at least a century! The titan has left when the country needed him the most.” Next day, I bought all the newspapers and was overwhelmed to read the instantaneous reaction of The Daily Star Editor Mr. Mahfuz Anam, who apparently had political and ideological differences with Mr. Enayetullh but rose above all the differences to give the latter what he well deserved. Mr. Anam duly branded Mr. Enayetullah Khan as the ‘icon’ of journalism and commented: “He was by far the best among us.”
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