Collected from Shamsuddin Peara’s Facebook Page: Let us refrain from spreading politically motivated and ignorantly formulated rumors about Serajul Alam Khan now that he has bid us goodbye forever. Degrading a deceased person is unkind, unwanted and unethical.
A handful of ill motivated people are pointing fingers at Mr. Serajul Alam Khan’s casual afternoons in the lobby of Hotel Sheraton in the 1990s. I think this needs a clarification. No one should degrade a person without knowing anything about him.
Serajul Alam Khan used to sit in the lobby of Sheraton hotel along with Mr. Amanullah, Dr. Akhlaqur Rahman and Mr. Shafiul Alam. Some other individuals like eminent TV actor Abul Khair and politicians of various colours would occasionally drop in to gossip for an hour or two.
Mr. Amanullah was a businessman. Mr. Shafiul Alam was a central secretariat member of Pakistan Awami League in the 1960s. Mr. Amanullah was also a veteran politician of Pakistan era. He was the private secretary of Hussein Shahid Suhrawardy in Karachi in the 1950s.
His name is mentioned in Sheikh Mujib’s Incomplete Biography. He made his fortune by doing business after shifting from Karachi to Dhaka in the 1960s. Amanullah, Shafiul Alam, Akhlaqur Rahman, Abul Khair and Serajul Alam Khan were friends since Pakistan days.
In the Sheraton lobby they would order a teapot and four or five empty cups, pour the tea into those cups and drink by refilling the cups with hot water whenever the cups were half empty. The bill would be a mere Tk. 250 for a whole evening and Mr. Amanullah paid it. Serajul Alam Khan never had the money nor did he pay the bill. I would request every half informed and ill-motivated person not to vilify Serajul Alam Khan by falsely alleging that he lived lavishly in 5-star hotels and paid his bills. – Edited by Erfan Alam