A Pakistani in Bangladesh

This book is a great addition to the already rich literature on 1971 and its aftereffects

In London last summer, a new Pakistani friend made me listen to Woh humsafar tha, a ghazal made popular as the title track of the TV serial Humsafar. Naseer Turabi had written this ghazal, first sung by Abida Parveen, on the secession of East Pakistan in 1971. This was the first time I caught a glimpse of the Pakistani perspective of "Mukkti Juddho", or the Bangladesh War for Independence, which had always been a righteous struggle in my imagination. Anam Zakaria’s deeply researched book tries to represent the Bangladeshi perspective — but it is an uncommon endeavour because the author