ARTICLE: Daily Mirror (24 Dec. 1971)

BANGLA DESH makes its philatelic debut on Thursday. The first issue of eight stamps replaces the Pakistan stamps, which were overprinted “Bangla Desh” in English and Bengali during the weeks of independence before the West Pakistan army crushed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League Government.

The stamps have been designed by Biman Mullick, the Bengali who won international awards for his Gandhi Memorial stamp for the GPO in 1969.

John Stonehouse, a former Labour Postmaster General just back from Bangla Desh, said yesterday: “The stamps will be accepted in all parts of the world except of course, Pakistan. They are very dramatic. More vivid than any I dealt with when I was Postmaster General. They should bring in very good revenue to Bangla Desh and be of great interest to stamp collectors,”