Videographer of March 7 rally lost into anonymity

The video of Bangabandhu's March 7 speech, which is conveying the history of freedom struggle from generation to generation, was captured by Pakistan government photographers. After developing the video graph it was saved by a group of freedom-loving Bengalis working in the Film and Publication Department of the then government.
Within a month of the speech, the videotape was removed from the Secretariat to a house in Dohar. After being kept in the paddy granary for a month, it was taken to India.
After Independence in nine months, the videotape also came back to the new-born Bangladesh.
At the risk of life, Amjad Ali Khandaker took the tapes of Bangabandhu's speech from the Secretariat to Dohar. He was a camera assistant in the film department at the time.
Amjad Ali narrated the story of his life while recording and preserving the video of that speech in an interview on the 50th anniversary of Bangabandhu's historic March 7 speech."We knew that we are going to die if we get caught, but we took the risk. Because, we loved Bangabandhu and he also loved me a lot," said Amjad Ali.
On March 7, Bangabandhu in his historic speech at a mammoth rally in the then 'Race Course Maidan', now Suhrawardy Udyan, in the city directed the freedom-loving Bengalis for waging a decisive struggle against the Pakistani occupation forces.
In his 19-minute extempore speech before millions of people of former East Pakistan, Bangabandhu in unequivocal term said, "We spilled our blood�we are ready to shed more blood, the people of the country shall be freed, Insha Allah!"
"Ebarer sangram amader muktir sangram, ebarer sangram swadhinatar sangram" - The struggle this time is for our emancipation, the struggle this time is for our independence- the great leader and the greatest Bengali of all times went on to add.
On October 30 in 2017, the Unesco recognised the historic speech as part of the world's documentary heritage.
It has been included in the Memory of the World International Register, a list of world's important documentary heritage maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
Amjad Ali Khandaker joined Bangladesh Television in 1979 as a cameraman from DFP's camera assistant. He retired in 2004 as BTV's Controller-Chief Cameraman.
He was injured several times in his career. Now, he has been paralyzed on the left side of his body for eight years.
Amjad Ali Khandaker said that since 1969, Bangabandhu's various political activities were secretly recorded by the Bengali workers of the Film and Publication Department.
Following this, they organized the preservation of the speech record of March 7, which came during the peak of the non-cooperation movement.
At that time, under the direction of the director of the film department Mahibur Rahman Khan, better known as actor Abul Khair, Amjad and others recorded and preserved the video of the speech.
On March 7 in 1971, Dhaka was the city of processions. People from different parts of the country gathered in groups at the racecourse grounds on foot, by bus-launch or by train.
In this crowd, the staff of the film department divided into two parts recorded the video. One part was responsible for recording the main speech and the other to document the overall environment.
The two teams included cameraman ZMA Mobin, cameraman MA Rauf, camera assistant Amjad Ali Khandaker, camera assistant SM Touhid, camera assistant Syed Moinul Ahsan, camera assistant Jonaid Ali and MLSS Khalilur Rahman.
Recalling the memory of the day, Amjad Ali said, "When we went, the ground was filled with people who came since morning. We went into the crowd and set our cameras. Mobin and I were in charge of recording the speech. Rauf and Touhid took shots roaming in the crowd."
After recording the speech, Mahibur Rahman Khan's staff took the initiative to protect it. They had to think about how to fool the Pakistanis.
During developing the film, Amjad and others did not write anything related to Bangabandhu's speech in the tag line for fear that they might be caught. They wrote cyclone on the tag line. So that others think, these are the films related to the 1970 cyclone.
"We did not have the system of developing a film. We had to do it in FDC lab. If they saw Bangabandhu's name then they would ruin it. That's why we, the workers, developed it from FDC with 'Cyclone' sign," Amjad recalled.
After the crackdown on March 25, the Pakistan Army started taking charge of various offices and courts. Liberation activists in the film department thought that if the Pakistani army attacked, they would destroy it. That is why the head of the department Mahibur Rahman planned how to remove them from the archives of the Secretariat.
Amjad said, "Then he told me, Amjad ... I will give you a responsibility. I said, what is it, sir? You have to go out of Dhaka with the films right now."
After that, Mahibur Rahman paid Amjad to buy a steel trunk. After receiving instructions, Amjad bought a 42-inch trunk from Sadarghat Market.
Amjad said that after bringing the trunk, Mahibur Rahman himself inserted Bangabandhu's speech, documentary film on Kazi Nazrul Islam and more pictures of Bangabandhu.
"Then I said to him, Sir, can I go and see my father? He said, 'Go'. My father worked in BG Press. I told my father, 'I am going out of Dhaka for two days, don't worry," added Amjad.
From there, Amjad returned straight to the Secretariat office, although he had his wife and two children at home.