Historical Background Of Bangladesh

Historical Background Of Bangladesh

The Pakistan’s brutal army started their dirty war, “Operation Searchlight” in the mid-night (around 11 P.M) of 25^th March 1971 to stop the legal demands of Bengali nation to be allowed to form central government of Pakistan since the Awami League (the political party of the east Pakistan) under Sheikh Mujib’s leadership had won the 1970’s general election and got the fresh majority to form the government.

The raping of the country, 1971

Thus the “worst genocide” of the history of world began in Bangladesh. The brutal (West) Pakistan army’s death squads roamed the streets ofDhaka, killed some 7,000 people (most of them were civilians, university students and partly were un-armed police and EPR soldiers) in a single night, and within a week, half the population of Dhaka had fled, and at least 30,000 people had been killed by those hyenas inDhaka city alone. (Genocidebangladesh.org).

According to the decision of the generals of Pakistan which had been taken in the conference on 22 February, 1971, General Yahya khan ordered the Pakistan army to kill three million of Bengalis, “and the rest will eat out of our hands.” (Robert Payne, Massacre [1972], p.50) (Genocidebangladesh.org).

After a nine months’ fierce fighting against that brutal army, with the help of Indian Army the Bengali Freedom Fighters (in Bangla – MuktiJoddha / MuktiBahini) had won the independence on 16^th December 1971, the Pakistan army surrendered unconditionally to the “Joint Command of the forces” of India-Bangladesh.

Surrender of a Butcher: General Niazi

In that worst genocide, the Bengali nation lost a huge population as well as huge wealth in the hands of those hyenas and their collaborators (the so-called, self-declared “PROTECTOR OF ISLAM”) in Bangladesh. Those brutes killed around 3.0 million civilians, raped around 200,000-400,000 women, set ablaze the villages after villages, and stormed towns after towns in that time of nine months’ period. Thus 10 million civilians of East Pakistan (Bangladesh) had to take refuge in neighboring India. The Pakistan army and their collaborators (Rajakar, Al-Bador, Al-Shams, etc.) looted everything and torched the houses of the supporters of Awami League and the Hindus and killed the Bengali people indiscriminately just like the hunting the birds in the open air.

Rao Farman Ali The butcher of Bengali intellectuals, 1971 (More than 1,000 intellectuals had been killed under his direct supervision)

Gen. Tikka Khan (A Butcher of 1971)

The brutal Pakistan army and their collaborators (Rajakar, Al-Bador, Al-Shams) also killed more than 1,000 intellectuals and professionals just 3-2 days prior to their surrender. The death squads of Jamat-e-Islami, Al-Bador and Al-Shams, kidnapped the Bengali intellectuals, doctors, university & college teachers and other professionals (who were mainly progressive in their activities) from their houses and killed them brutally just 3-2 days prior to their surrender in December, 1971 to make the Bengali nation intellectual-less in the coming period.

GulamAzam: Head of the Collaborators, 1971

MaulanaMannan: One of the top War-criminals

Two key Officers of Pakistan army, Brigadier Kashem and Captain Kayum, coordinated the killings of the intellectuals under the supervision of General Rao Farman Ali (Genocidebangladesh.org). The main notorious members of those death squads were as below:

MaulanaMotiur Rahman Nizamee: Head of Al-Bador, Pakistan, 1971

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed: Head of Al-Bador, East Pakistan, 1971

1) MoulanaMotiur Rahman Nizamee (Amir, Jamat-e-Islam)

2) Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed (General Secretary, Jamat-e-Islam)

3) Abdul QuaderMollah (Jamat-e-Islam)

4) KhalequeMozumdar (Jamat-e-Islam, currently living in Europe)

5) Kamaruzzaman (Jamat-e-Islam)

6) Ashrafuzzaman Khan (Jamat-e-Islam, currently living in New York, USA)

7) Maulana Abdul Mannan (dead, ex-owner of the Daily Inqilab).

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman (Butcher of Sherpur), Al-Bador Commander, 1971

Abdul QuaderMollah (Butcher of Mirpur), Al-Bador Commander, 1971

There are many reasons behind the conflict between Bengalese and Pakistanis:

Bengalis were treated as second class citizens in the then Pakistan. Pakistanis never believed Bengalis and they always tried to suppress them in every sector of the state. Not only that, they (Pakistanis) never believed the Bengalis as true Muslim, though the majority of them were Muslim.

The West Pakistan establishment tried to impose Urdu (their main language) on Bengalis forcibly at its very initial stage. They hatred Bengali culture and pointed it as “anti-Islamic”. Like, they imposed ban on Rabindranath Tagor’s songs in national broadcasting centers (Radio & TV) of Pakistan.

Although East Pakistan had a larger population, West Pakistan dominated the divided country politically and received more money from the common budget.

Like, an unequal rate of growth between the two wings of the country seemed to have been an important feature of economic development since the independence: only one-fifth of large-scale manufacturing was located in East Pakistan after ten years.

“During the last fifteen years (1947-1962), East Pakistan has been drained out of one thousand crores of rupees of its solid assets by way of less imports, and more exports. Today is the sixteenth year we have been reduced to paupers to build West Pakistan; we are told ‘get out boys’, we have nothing for you, we do not require you.” —

East Pakistanis noticed that whenever one of them, such as Khawaja Nazimuddin, Muhammad Ali Bogra, or Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was elected as Prime Minister of Pakistan, he were swiftly deposed by the largely West Pakistani establishment. The military dictatorships of Ayub Khan (27 October 1958 – 25 March 1969) and Yahya Khan (25 March 1969 – 20 December 1971), both West Pakistanis, only heightened this type of fear-feelings among the Bengalis (wikipedia.org).

Chronological History:  Bangladesh Chapter

Map of Pakistan before 1971 Source: en.wikipedia.org

From the early historic period, Bangladesh (Banga, Bengal, East Bengal) was the part of India. In 1947, it became the part of Pakistan as East Bengal (later in October 1955, it been renamed as East Pakistan). The distance of these 2 parts of Pakistan was more than 1,500 km and separated by Indian territory. Not only that those two parts of Pakistan had no common border and culturally and socially those were totally different from each other, except the religion, Islam. Although the population of the two wings was close to equal, political and military power were concentrated in West Pakistan and it was widely perceived that East Pakistan was being exploited economically and politically, leading to many grievances.

August 14, 1947: The Partition of British India gave birth to two new states; a secular state named "India" and an Islamic state named "Pakistan". But Pakistan comprised two geographically and culturally separated areas to the east and the west of India.  In the new state, the “East Bengal” (afterward, it was renamed as “East Pakistan” on 14 October, 1955) became the part of Islamic Pakistan.947-1971: Pakistan Rnts happened in that period like as be

1947: A key resolution at a national education summit in Karachi had been adopted that ‘Urdu’ would be the sole state language of Pakistan and the Government would ensured its exclusive use in the media and in schools. But the Begalis in East Bengal started to protest and later it was transformed into a movement (GenocideBangladesh).

1948 March 21: The founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared in a civic reception in Dhaka that “Urdu and only Urdu will remain as the state language of Pakistan”. The students of Dhaka University instantly protested this declaration in front of Jinnah.

1952 February 21: Language Movement – International Mother Language Day.

Pakistan government forcibly tried to stop the demand of the Bengali people to establish “Bangla” as one of the state’s language of Pakistan. As a result, some protesters had been killed, huge number of people took the streets to protests unanimously and thus “seeds of Bangladeshi nationalism” was sown during that movement.

1954 March: The United Front of Awami League and the KrishakSramik Party won the most of the seats in the East Bengal Legislative Assembly. Sheikh Mujib was elected in this assembly and serving briefly as the minister for agriculture. Muslim League got only 9 seats out of 310.

1958 October 7: Field Marshal Ayub Khan captured the power, sent President Iskander Mirza in exile and abrogated the constitution of Pakistan.

Field Marshal Ayub Khan The introducer of so-called "Basic Democracy" in Pakistan

Ayub Khan declared his cabinet, in which he included 3 military officials, including Lt. General Azam Khan and eight civilians including Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto from Sindh. All political parties and their activities had been banned,meetings and demonstrations became forbidden. Popular politicians were either imprisoned — including Sheikh Mujib, MaulanaBhashani of East Pakistan, and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (NWFP) — or their activities were restricted. Sheikh Mujib had been continuously harassed through one false case after another.

1960 February: Ayub Khan was elected as President for a five-year term by his so called 80,000 elected ‘Basic Democrats’ (BD).

1960 April: Lt. General Azam Khan had been appointed as governor of East Pakistan.

    Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

1962 February: Sheikh Mujib had been arrested again under the Public Security Act. Ayub Khan lifted the martial law. The BDs elected the National Assembly according to Ayub Khan’s directives. He lifted the ban from political parties, Sheikh Mujib was freed. Pakistan Muslim League had been split in to two groups – Council and Convention. Ayub Khan backed the Convention Muslim League.

1966 February: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was elected the party President. The Awami League under the leadership of Sheikh Mujib, formulated the “Six Points” demand (please see below too) in front of the people.

1966 March 23: 6-Point Formula – Bengalis’s Right to Live by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman:

“I know of no nobler battle than to fight for the rights of the exploited millions. We believe that this feeling of absolute equality, sense of inter-wing justice and impar­tiality is the very basis of Pakistani patriotism. Only he is fit to be a leader of Pakistan who is imbued with and consumed by such patriotism, a leader who zealously holds that anyone who deliberately or knowingly weakens any limb of Pakistan is an enemy of the country.” 

The Awami League demanded that changes would be made in regard to East Pakistan. These changes were embodied in Mujib's Six Points Plan, which he presented at a meeting of opposition parties in Lahore in 1966. Those Six Points were as below :

      1. The constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense based on the Lahore Resolution and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a  Legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise.

      2. The federal government should deal with only two subjects: Defence and Foreign Affairs, and all other residual subjects should be vested in the federating states.

      3. Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate Banking Reserve should be established and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.

      4. Federal centre would have no such power. The federation would be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures.

      5.There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.

      6. East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary force.

These 6-points program was for the greater autonomy of East Pakistan and would reduce the supremacy of West Pakistanis over the East Pakistan. But West Pakistanis, specifically saying, the then military regime and the establishment of West Pakistan, meant those 6-points program as the declaration of de facto independence for East Pakistan and took drastic reaction to it.

1969 January - February: In the whole Pakistan, violence had been broken out between people demonstrating against Ayub Khan’s martial law regime and the police.

To restoring peace, the ‘Agartala Conspiracy Case’ had been dismissed and Sheikh Mujib had been released by the GOP.

1969 February 20: According to the CIA’s report, the popularity of Ayub khan was almost ‘zero’. His political party, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) - never became an effective organization, it appeared to have the virtually collapsed and they (CIA) started to believe that Pakistan stood on the brink.

1969 March 13: Sheikh Mujib raised his demands again to establish the full regional Autonomy in the round table conference to make the Federation successful in the East Pakistan.

General Yahya Khan

1969 March 25: General Yahya Khan captured the power by a hidden coup d’etat in which Yahya forced Ayub Khan to hand over his powers and resign. 

1969 March 31: General Yahya Khan immediately imposed the martial law in Pakistan. On the 31st of March, he declared himself as the President of Pakistan.

1969 December 5: At a discussion meeting, Sheikh Mujib declared that from now on the East Pakistan would be called Bangla Desh. He added:

“There was a time when all efforts were made to erase the word ‘Bangla’ from this land and its map. The existence of the word ‘Bangla’ was found nowhere except in the term ‘Bay of Bengal’. I, on behalf of Pakistan, announce today that this land will be called ‘Bangla Desh’ instead of ‘East Pakistan’.” 

1970 December 7: Awami League won the election, PPP refused to allow Sheikh Mujib as Prime Minister.

In 1970 the Awami League, the largest East Pakistani political party, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in the national elections. The party won 167 out of the 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan, and thus a majority of the 313 seats in the National Assembly. This gave the Awami League the constitutional right to form a government.

The nearest contender was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of PPP, with a total of 81 seats in the National Assembly, and with a two-thirds majority from Sind.

National Council Election, 1970

The election was held on 7 December 1970. The total voters were 29,479,386 and the casting votes were 17,005,163 (57.68%), the valid casting votes were 16,454,278.

Provincial Council Election, 1970

The election was held on 17 December 1970. The percentage of casting votes was (57.69%), and the number of reserved women seat was 10.

The summary of the Provincial Council Election, 1970 (Wikipedia.org)

Sl. No.	Political Party	Total Candidates	Seats Captured	Percentage	Symbol
1	Awami League	300	288	89%	Boat
2	PDP	-	2	1%
3	Niajm-e-Islami	-	1	-
4	Jamaat-e-Islami	-	1	3%
5	Pakistan Muslim League (Convention)	-	0	1%
6	Pakistan Muslim League (Kou)	-	0	0.05%
7	1.      Pakistan Muslim League (Kayum)	-	0	0.05%
8	National Awami Party (Wali)	-	1	0.9%
9	Independent (politician)	-	7	5%

After these elections, Sheikh Mujib emerged as an undisputed leader of the Bengalis with 268 of the 279 seats in the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly going to the Awami League.

However, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party, refused to allow Mujib to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Instead, he proposed the idea of having two Prime Ministers, one for each wing. The proposal elicited outrage in the east wing, already chafing under the other constitutional innovation, the “one unit scheme”.

1971 January: Sheikh Mujib declared the ‘Six Points’ that it would be the base for a new constitution and autonomy for East Pakistan. Hence, on 21 January 1971, Mujib called a meeting of all political leaders of Pakistan to discuss on this issue.

1971 February 22: In a conference, the generals in West Pakistan took a decision to crush the Awami League and its supporters.

Yahya Khan ordered at that conference, “Kill three million of them, and the rest will eat out of our hands.” (Robert Payne, Massacre [1972], p. 50.).

Paki-Demon: the portrait of Gen. Yahya Khan

1971 February 24: Sheikh Mujib announced that there was a conspiracy to undermine the election results and the establishment of Pakistan would not let to form the government according to the election result.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto: The Villain of  the dirty war of Pakistan, 1971

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto said: “We cannot go there only to endorse a constitution already prepared by a party, and return humiliated… We have a duty to those millions who elected us.” (GenocideBangladesh).

Instead, he raised a peculiar formula that the PPP should control West Pakistan while the Awami League could rule over East Pakistan. Not only that he threatened his newly elected delegates to the National Assembly that he would break the legs of any party member who would dare to attend the March 3 session.

1971 March 1: GOP announced the postponement of the session of the National Assembly, which would be seated on 3^rd March. After that announcement, hundreds of thousands of the enraged people of East Pakistan took the street.

Sheikh Mujib told in a press conference that it was not democracy but dictatorship. He called general strikes on 2^nd March in Dhaka and all over the country on 3^rd March.

1971 March 3: Despite the declaration to start the arms revolution in East Pakistan by the students unit in Dhaka, Sheikh Mujib called for a “non-violent non-cooperation movement” instead. Mujib demanded in a meeting, “Withdraw forces, transfer power”. The curfew imposed in the main cities of East Pakistan, angry mob burned Pakistani flag in many areas in the province to show the deep resentment to the West Pakistani establishment and their brutal military regime. During 1-3 March 1971, the Pakistani brutal army killed more that 300 agitators in different cities and towns of East Pakistan.

Under the posture for negotiations with Sheikh Mujib, the non-Bengali regiments of soldiers had been secretly flown into Dhaka from West Pakistan.

Sheikh Mujib: addressing in the mass rally of March 7, 1971

1971 March 7: In a massive rally at Race Course Maidan in Dhaka, Sheikh Mujib announced his decision to participate in the National Assembly session, but he raised his 4-point demands to fulfill before the session. Those are as below: (Genocidebangladesh.org)

1) Withdrawal of the martial law

2) Return of the troops back to their barracks

3) Power handed back to the elected people’s representatives, and

4) Proper investigation into the killings of unarmed civilians.

In that historic rally, he actually declared the “Independence of Bangladesh” informally, by pronouncing like this:

“Our Struggle this time is a struggle for FREEDOM, our struggle this time is a struggle for INDEPENDENCE. Joy Bangla.”

He also urged the people to be ready to fight. He also asked that every house would be a fort and would attack the enemy wherever they could. Actually from 1^st March 1971, the civil administration, Banks, Industrial activities, etc. of East Pakistan had been operated according to Mujib’s directives.

“Whatever conspiracy you indulge in you will not succeed in suppressing the demands of the people. We would not bow our heads to any force. We will free the people of Bangla Desh.”

1971 March 25: Pak army crackdown on the civilians in Dhaka to stop the Bengalis forever. They named their “Dirty War” against the legal demand of Bengalis as “Operation Searchlight”. Thus their systematic slaughtering and ethnic cleansing had been started at that night and continued up to their surrender on 16^thDecember, 1971 and the whole world could observe that brutality of Pakistan’s hyena-army.

Genocide Bangladesh: The victims of Pakistan's Dirty-war, 1971.

Declaration of Independence:

After the brutal military crackdown of the Pakistan Army in the early hours of March 26, 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and the political leaders of Awami League either went into hiding or fleeing to neighboring India, where they organized a provisional government afterwards. Before being held up by the Pakistani Army Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave a hand note of the declaration of the General Secretary of Chittagong Awami League, Mr. M. A. Hannan read that declaration of the independence of Bangladesh (in Bengali) from the Kalurghat Radio Station, Chittagong twice at 2.10 pm and 2.30 pm. Afterwards from that Kalurghat Radio Station, the Bengali Army Major, Zia-Ur-Rahman read that declaration of independence of Bangladesh in English on 27^th March 1971 on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman:

"I, Major Zia-ur-Rahman,on behalf of our great national leader and supreme commander Sheikh Mujibur Rahman do hereby proclaim the independence of Bangladesh. …."

In the evening of 3^rd December 1971, Pakistan Air Force started their pre-emptive strikes on the 11 forward air bases and radar installations of Indian Air Force of its western border under the code name “Chengiz Khan”. After that attack, India formally intervened on the side of the Bangladeshis on 4^th December 1971. Within 13 days, Pakistan army had been defeated on the both sides of Indian borders. In Bangladesh front Pakistan army surrendered on 16^th December, 1971; and the nation of Bangla Desh ("Country of Bengal") was finally established on the following day. The new country changed its name to Bangladesh on January 11, 1972 and became a parliamentary democratic country (Peoples’ Republic) under its constitution. Shortly thereafter on March 19 Bangladesh signed a friendship treaty with India.