Reporting 1971: Mark Tully and the war the world heard

During 1971, when Pakistan's military rule made it difficult to reveal the true realities of the Liberation War, Mark Tully became a familiar and trusted name in Bangladesh by regularly broadcasting news and analysis of the war on the BBC.

"At that time, for people in Bangladesh, the BBC meant Mark Tully," researcher and journalist Afsan Chowdhury told BBC Bangla. "Those who had radios at home would listen morning and evening, waiting to hear his voice on the BBC."

For his impartial reporting during the Liberation War and his role in bringing the reality of the struggle to the world, Mark Tully was later honoured by the Bangladesh government with the Muktijuddho Moitri Sammanona (Friends of the Liberation War honour).

Mark Tully last visited Dhaka in 2012 to receive the honour. But his first and only wartime visit to Bangladesh came much earlier – around a month after the Liberation War began – when he arrived in Dhaka in the final week of April 1971 to report on the unfolding conflict.

Veteran BBC journalist Sir Mark Tully, who covered Bangladesh's Liberation War, dies at 90

At the time, Pakistan's military government allowed only two foreign journalists, including Tully, to enter Bangladesh – and only on that single occasion. During the 1971 visit, he spent nearly two weeks in the country, travelling by road from Dhaka to Rajshahi and witnessing the situation beyond the capital.

"Travelling with me then was Britain's The Daily Telegraph war correspondent Clare Hollingworth," Tully recalled in an interview with BBC Bangla in March 2016. "Because we were able to move around freely and observe the situation firsthand, our reporting carried particular weight."

Travelling through different parts of Bangladesh, Tully witnessed the brutality of the war at close quarters and filed on-the-ground reports for the BBC, bringing those realities to international audiences.

"We realised that mass killings had taken place," he told BBC Bangla. "On my journey from Dhaka to Rajshahi, I saw village after village burned down along both sides of the road."

How did he gather news?

During the 1971 Liberation War, almost all newspapers published from Dhaka were under the control of Pakistan's military authorities. What could be described as press freedom did not exist at the time.

Only statements issued by the military government and reports cleared by them were allowed to be published. As a result, news of killings and repression by Pakistani forces, or resistance by the Mukti Bahini, rarely appeared in the local press.

Even reports broadcast by Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra or carried by Indian media were not always accurate or fully impartial, said Liberation War researcher and journalist Afsan Chowdhury.

"As a result, Western media outlets such as the BBC became trusted sources of accurate and impartial news at the time," Chowdhury said.

Throughout the Liberation War, the BBC regularly broadcast news and analysis on the situation inside a besieged Bangladesh.

"As a BBC journalist, Mark Tully reported on the Liberation War with neutrality, and his style of presenting news was exceptional," Chowdhury told BBC Bangla. "That is what made him a household name."

Although Tully was allowed to enter Dhaka in April 1971, Pakistan's military government did not permit him to remain in the country for more than two weeks.

"When the Pakistani army had reached the border areas and believed they had control over the situation, that was when they allowed us to enter," he recalled.

After leaving Bangladesh, Tully continued to report on the Liberation War from London, bringing to the world accounts of the Pakistani military's mass killings and other developments of the conflict.

"I spent most of the war in London," he said. "From there, I wrote and broadcast analysis and commentary on different aspects of the conflict. Most of the information I relied on came from Calcutta."

"When the refugee crisis began, a wide range of information started coming in from there," he added. "We had a very capable correspondent named Nizamuddin, who was based inside the country. He also sent us reports. Towards the end of the war, he was killed."

Tully said he also gathered information through colleagues and acquaintances whose relatives were still in Bangladesh at the time.

"I received a great deal of help from colleagues at the BBC Bangla desk in London," he recalled in an interview with BBC Bangla nearly a decade before his death. "Many of them had relatives and friends back home. They tried to stay in contact with them in various ways, and that information proved invaluable to my work."