When the Liberation War broke out in Bangladesh in 1971, Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus, currently the chief adviser to the interim government, engaged himself in building public opinion in favour of the war while teaching at the Middle Tennessee State University in the United States (US).
There, he organised Bangalis to support Bangladesh independence and raised funds, as well as led various programmes to draw attention of the diplomats from various countries working at the United Nations, including the US administration, reports BSS.
He regularly kept in touch with the editors and journalists of local newspapers and television stations there to convey news of the freedom-loving people of Bangladesh through the US media.
Professor Yunus ran the Bangladesh Information Center with the Bangladeshi diaspora to gather support for the Liberation War.
He used to publish the 'Bangladesh Newsletter' from his home in Nashville, USA.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist has mentioned his eventful days during the Liberation War in his autobiography, 'Banker To The Poor'.
He wrote, 'On March 25, 1971, the Liberation War broke out in Bangladesh and our plans to return there were abandoned. I devoted myself to the cause of the liberation. Like all Bengalis, I was keeping a close watch on the events in Dhaka. The fateful day, I came back to my apartment to have lunch and turned on the radio to get the latest news. There was a brief item stating that the Pakistani army had moved in to stop the political opposition against the government of Pakistan ..."
At that time, Dr Yunus wrote, while he was changing his clothes, he stopped, rushed to the phone and called one expatriate Bengali Dr Zillur at Nashville.
The Nobel Laureate asked Dr Zillur to turn on the radio. He told him that he was going to his house immediately and that he should contact all other Bengalis.
Referring to assembling of Bengalis at Zillur's house in Nashville, USA, on March 26, Dr Yunus wrote, 'Within an hour, I was at Zillur's house. At that time, there were six Bengalis from East Pakistan in greater Nashville (including myself). We all assembled in his house to decide what to do. We carried on collecting information from all sources. The message was clear; the Pakistani army wanted to crush Bengalis once and for all."
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