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organize ourselves when Shamsul Bari showed up with the necessary permission. I shouted at the top of my voice: "Here is our leader. Let's now line up behind him and start our demonstration."
    It worked like magic. The demonstration on the steps of Capitol Hill was a grand affair. We were noticed by U.S. legislators. Congressional aides took time to be briefed on the situation and our demands. The news media were especially active; television cameras covered the rally and took on-the-spot interviews.
    That evening, we all met at the residence of another official of the embassy, Mr. A. M. A. Muhith, the economic counselor. There was a heated debate over the coordination of Bengali activities in the United States and the immediate transfer of allegiance by Bengali diplomats. The shouting with which my day had begun was repeated with more intensity at this grand assembly—why were not Bengali diplomats leaving the Pakistan embassy right away? We left after dinner, knowing that we had to find a way to coordinate the activities of all Bengalis in the United States and convinced that the Bengali diplomats could no longer provide the necessary leadership. I began to doubt whether diplomats should stay on with Pakistan.
    On March 30, Shamsul Bari and I were given the responsibility of visiting all the embassies, meeting the ambassadors or their representatives, explaining our cause, and requesting recognition of Bangladesh as an independent state. It was a very interesting experience. We visited many embassies in one day. Each one had its own style of receiving us, but there were many common questions: Whom do you represent? Do you have a U.S.-based organization? How can we "recognize" your country if you do not have a government? Is there any foreign government supporting you? What is the position of your diplomats in the United States? Are they supporting you? When are they going to come out in the open? What proportion of the population in "East Pakistan" wants an independent Bangladesh?
    Only one question stumped us: "Do you have a government of your own?"
    Bari and I decided that we had to have our own government immediately, but how does one go about establishing a government in Bangladesh while still in Washington? I had an idea: I could fly to Calcutta, find a few people to form a cabinet, and announce to the world that a Bangladesh government had been formed. In a snap, we would have both a country and a government. Bari liked the idea. We decided I would leave for Calcutta the next day.
    I thought of another essential strategy—a radio station to broadcast programs for Bangladesh, so that the people inside Bangladesh knew what was going on and what they had to do. A radio transmitter, I thought, should be mounted on a vehicle. It should broadcast inside Bangladeshi territory and return to the Indian side of the border whenever chased by the Pakistani army. I had $6,000. This should cover the down payment for a transmitter.
    We had some special requests for various embassies. At the Burmese embassy we asked Burma to keep its borders open to those fleeing from the Pakistani army. We would try to find funds to feed refugees from Bangladesh. At the Sri Lankan embassy we asked Sri Lanka to refuse landing rights to all Pakistani military and civilian flights between Bangladesh and Pakistan. Pakistan was known to carry army personnel, arms, and ammunition on civilian flights from Karachi to Dhaka. In the Indian embassy we were treated like highly placed diplomats. Officials there wanted to know about Bengali diplomats in the Pakistan embassy, about the whereabouts of our leaders, and whether we had established a U.S.-based organization. We asked India to open its border to refugees, provide free access to Calcutta for expatriate Bangladeshis, and relax rules surrounding Indian visas for Bengalis with Pakistani passports.
    That night we had another exciting discussion about setting up a government. We slightly rearranged our