'Khuda Hafez', as is well known is a Persian term and has been in vogue in our sub-continent for centuries -- from the Sultanate period till today. The British rulers also used to apply this term in their official communications. This does not apparently have any religious connotation.

On the other hand, it was General Zia-ul Huq, the ruthless military dictator of Pakistan, who introduced the expression 'Allah Hafez' in his country in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran under the leadership of Ayatullah Khomenl. He did this to please his American masters whom Khomeni used to denounce as the 'Big Satan'. It was a sly move to distance Pakistan from Iran. More than that, by replacing the conventional use of the Persian term 'Khuda' by Allah, Zia aggravated the Shia-Sunni sectarian strife in Pakistan. It was a diabolical gimmick by the godfather of the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist terrorism that General Zia was.

Mr Tahsin Hyder is absolutely wrong in claiming that 'Allah Hafez' is widely used in most of the Muslim countries 'Allah Hafez' is not found in the vocabulary of any Arabic-speaking or non-Arab Muslims anywhere in the world with the exception of the Pakistanis and their imitators in Bangladesh.

Pakistan has now been struggling against the legacies of Zia. Unfortunately, the ghosts of Zia haunt here in Bangladesh.