Simon Dring, a British penman, was born in the United Kingdom in 1945. He had a long illustrious career as a journalist for world-renowned newspapers and television-based media outlets.
During the War of Liberation, Simon worked as a reporter for The Daily Telegraph in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. That time he was called from London’s Headquarters to say the political situation in East Pakistan was hot and fierce. Something grievous is going to happen there, you go to Dhaka. Simon got up at the Intercontinental Hotel in Shahbag, Dhaka. Before the Pakistani military began the massacre at midnight on March 25, 1971, all the foreign journos stationed in Dhaka at that time were blocked at the hotel. The next morning they were taken to the airport by plane. Simon Dring was hiding in the hotel at the risk of his life. When the curfew was lifted on the morning of March 27, he visited the then Iqbal Hall (currently Sergeant Zahurul Haque Hall) at Dhaka University, Rajarbagh Police barracks, and various areas of old Dhaka and wrote a report titled ‘Tanks Ash Revolt in Pakistan.’ It was published in the Daily Telegraph on March 30. From this report, the world could know about the brutality of the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) that day.
The government of Bangladesh honored Simon Dring in 2012 as a bona-fide friend of Bangladesh’s War of Liberation. This great soul died on July 16, 2021, in a hospital in Romania. We pray for the eternal salvation of this journo friend for his unconditional contribution to our motherland during the War of Liberation.
W. A. Khan
Rangpur
