From: "Phil Payne" 

> Checing dates, it must have been 1982 - the failed coup was 30 May 1981.

Finger trouble.

Checking dates, it must have been 1981 - the failed coup was 30 May 1981.

Zia Rahman - despite other criticism - really was popular.  He had a
bodyguard of six to eight heavily armed soldiers in an open-topped truck.
His attitude was: "If we're going to have the truck along anyway, I
might as well ride in it and save the cost of the car."

So he did, and every now and then he'd drive past in the centre of Dacca
(as it was spelt back then) standing up behind the cab and holding on to
the rail, waving to people he passed.  He didn't live behind a shield - no
ostentation, no big Mercedes.  There _was_ one, and he would pick up
visiting heads of state from the airport in the thing, but he rarely used
it himself.  Going down to Chittagong you cross countless branches of the
Brahmaputra on small flat-bottomed ferries - every time his truck
approached one, people would make way - but not in a subservient manner. 
More with friendly waves and greetings.

I know he enshrined bits of Islamic law in the constitution, but the Hindus
didn't seem to have a problem.  I wound up more or less marooned in the
brass-founding village of Dahmrai just north of Dacca for a while, and had
long discussions.  Hindus to a man, and not in the slightest worried about
being surrounded by Muslims.  The only arguments were about the price of
bell-metal and prawns.

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