When the All-India Muslim League leaders Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan were working for a separate homeland for the Muslims in the northwest and the eastern parts of India, the Bengal Muslim League leader H.S. Suhrawardy on April 27 in 1947 again raised the issue of independent and sovereign Bengal (comprising Bangladesh and West Bengal of India) in accordance with the Lahore Resolution. Bengal Muslim League Secretary Abul Hashim and Forward Bloc leaders Sarat Bose and Kiron Sankar Roy supported Suhrawardy’s new initiative. But sadly, the effort could not be translated into reality. The All-India National Congress opposed the plan. MK Gandhi in a letter, rather, asked Sarat Bose to join the National Congress and abandon the plan. On the other hand, the All-India Muslim League leader M A Jinnah neither supported nor opposed.
Both Suhrawardy and Sarat Bose agreed that the Muslims and the Hindus would perform their religious rites and rituals free of encroachment by the other, and would work together socially, economically and politically for a prosperous Bengal. But Suhrawardy finally had to shelve his plan of an independent and sovereign Bengal in the face of Congress’s opposition. Disgusted with Gandhi’s role, Suhrawardy together with Abul Hashim and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (later Architect of Bangladesh) turned to proposed Pakistan.
There is no doubt that the people of Bengal overwhelmingly supported Pakistan, but it did not take time for them to realise that new state had fallen into the trap of the civil and the military bureaucrats from the Punjab, To them, East Bengal (EB) was mere a colony and never wanted to give us our shares. They were very powerful. Just one example will clear it.
Governor General M A Jinnah wrote a letter from his sickbed to Suhrawardy seeking his company for discussion of some important national issues. Astonishingly the letter returned undelivered, marked ‘the addressee is not traceable.’ The first strike came on the Bengali language. Though the All-India Muslim League assured the Bengal Muslim League in 1946 that Bengali would be made the State Language of East Bengal, there was no sign thereof in reality. Dr. Md. Shahidullah demanded the status of State Language for Bengali for the whole of Pakistan.
In 1948, Jinnah came to Dhaka in his first official visit. An ovation was arranged for him at the then Race Course (now Suhrawardy Udyan). To a question about the future state language, he declared, “Urdu at Urdu should be the State Language of Pakistan.”
The announcement proved his shortcoming in politics, as just three per cent people of Pakistan spoke in Urdu compared with 56 pc in Bengali and 27 in Punjabi. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan repeated it in September 1950 before 13 months of his assassination on October 16 in 195I in Rawalpindi. His successor Khawaja Nazimuddin too recited same statement on January 30 in 1952. Such move did not bring good results for the people of Pakistan, which the former West Pakistani leaders never tried to realise.
H.S. Suhrawardy landed in Dhaka in 1948 but he was not allowed to stay long. Alternatively he decided to settle in Karachi and vowed to break the backbone of the Muslim League. in 1949, Maulana Bhasani, H.S. Suhrawardy and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman formed a new political party named Awami Muslim League. Bhasani, Tangail’s Shamsul Haque and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the party’s President, General Secretary and Joint-Secretary respectively.
The Muslim League (ML) ruled East Bengal until routed by the United Front (UF) in March 1954 in the provincial legislative election. The component parties of UF were Awami League, AK Fazlul Haque’s Krishak Sramik Party, Nizam-e-Islami and Gonotantrik Party, winning 300 seats out of 309, with boat as election symbol. A 14member cabinet was formed with A K Fazlul Haque as the Chief Minister, Ataur Rahman, Abu Hossain Sarker, Kafiluddin Chowdhury, Abul Mansur Ahmad, Syed Azizul Haque, Abdus Salam Khan, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Abdul Latif Biswas, Muazzem Hussain, Hamid Uddin, Yusuf Ali Chowdhury, Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury and Ashraf Uddin Chowdhury.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was made Agri-credit, Cooperative and Rural Development Ministry.
The Chief Minister kept the Home in his hand. But Governor General Ghulam Mohammad (a former ICS Officer) dissolved it on October 14 on the plea of failure to check the riot between the Bengali and the non-Bengali at Adamjee in the then Dhaka district. Fazlul Haque was interned and about 3,000 leaders and workers, including Sheikh Mujib, were arrested.
Meanwhile, the 2nd Constituent Assembly of Pakistan presented the first Constitution, declaring Pakistan an Islamic state. East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan, while the West Punjab, Sind, Frontier Province and Beluchistan lost their separate identities into the newly formed province of West Pakistan.
In the month of March in 1956, A K Fazlul Haque became Governor of East Pakistan and on September 6 summoned Ataur Rahman Khan to form a Cabinet. The other members were Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Manoranjan Dhar, Mashiur Rahman, Abdur Rahman, Khairat Hossain, Kafiluddin Chowdhury, Mohammad Ali, Mansur Ali, Dhirendranath Dutta and Sarat Chandra Majumder. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was made Commerce, Labour and Industry Minister. Within five days of it on September 12, Pakistan Awami League President, H. S. Suhrawardy, was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. His coalition partner was Republican Party of Dr. Khan. The first session of the National Assembly was held in Dhaka on October 8.
In the month of July, Maulana Bhasani differed with Suhrawardy on his foreign policy and quit Awami League to form a new party named National Awami Party joined by the leftists and the Marxists. Bhasani in the party’s first conference held at Kagmari of Santosh in Tangail district bade farewell to West Pakistan and said: As Salamu Alaikum.
On October 16 in 1957, Suhrawardy was forced to resign and a year later on October 8 President Iskander Mirza proclaimed Martial Law in the whole of Pakistan. General Ayub Khan was appointed the Chief Martial Law Administrator, who, became the President of Pakistan on October 27.
But the brave people of Pakistan became united to launch anti-martial law movement in 1961. On January 24 in 1962, Suhrawardy and other political leaders met in the residence of Ataur Rahman Khan to discuss next steps of action, Surprisingly the news leaked out and the government arrested him in Karachi. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tofazzal Husein Manik Mia, Abul Mansur Ahmad, Kafiluddin Chowdhury, Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Altaf-Hossain and Karban Ali were arrested in Dhaka.
After release from jail, Sheikh Mujib ur Rahman revived Awami League in 1964 and placed his famous Six-Point on February 13 in 1966 in Lahore at a round table conference participated by the political leaders. The main features were :
I. Implementation of the Lahore Resolution 1940.
2. To keep the defence and the foreign affairs only in the hands of the central government.
3. Introduction of two separate currencies for the two wings of Pakistan, or stoppage of flight of capital from one wing to the other in case of one common currency.
4. Empowering the provincial governments to fix and collect taxes, depositing a part thereof to the central government to meet its expenditures.
5. Empowering the two regional governments to send trade delegations abroad, to sign export and import deals with foreign countries, and to open two separate foreign currency accounts.
6. Creation of a Para-military force in East Pakistan and the shifting of the naval headquarters to Chittagong from Karachi.
Sheikh Mujib returned from Pakistan and received great response. His journey for full autonomy based on 6-point began. But the extreme right and the extreme left wing political leaders vehemently opposed him, calling his demand a step towards secession. The government arrested him on May 8 in 1966 and accused him of seceding from Pakistan in cooperation with military officers and civil bureaucrats. A sedition case : State versus Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, otherwise known as ‘The Agartala Conspiracy Case’ was filed in January 1968. Lieutenant Commander Moazzem Hossain of Pakistan Navy was made the second accused. The Pakistan Army killed him in Dhaka soon after the crack down on March 26 in 1971. He is hardly remembered despite his contribution to Independence.
The Agartala Conspiracy case started in 1968 at the Dhaka Cantonment. Just then, four student organisations namely East Pakistan Students League (EPSL), East Pakistan Students Union (EPSU-Menon Group), East Pakistan Students Union (EPSU-Motia) and National Students Federation (NSF-Dolon Group) formed All-Party Students Action Committee (SAC) and drafted historic II-points for the realisation of autonomy and economic rights. The main features of II-point were:
1. Return to the Parliamentary democracy and introduction of direct election based on adult franchise.
2. Cancellation of Hamidur Rahman Education Commission and National Education Policy.
3. Granting of full autonomy to East Pakistan.
4. Making of West Pakistan a sub-federation, uniting the small regions.
5. Nationalisation of banks, insurance companies, jute trading and big industries.
6 Reduction of taxes and land development taxes.
7. Giving of fair wages and bonus to the workers, ensuring them of education, medicine and housing, and granting right to strike and to form trade union.
8. Steps to control flood in East Pakistan and proper use of manpower.
9. Withdrawal of emergency, special security and other repressive laws.
10. Withdrawal from SEATO and Cento, and to rescind US-Pakistan military pact
11. Release of all political leaders including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
The student leaders were Abdur Rauf and Khaled Mohammad Ali of EPSL, Mahbubullah
and Mostafa Jamal Haider of EPSU (Menon), Saifuddin Ahmad Manik and Shamsuddoha of EPSU (Motia), Mahbubul Haque Dolan and Fakhrul Islam of NSF (Dolan), and Tofael Ahmad and Nazim Kamran Chowdhury of DUCSU.
Meanwhile, the killing of Sergeant Zahurul Haque of Pakistan Navy at the Dhaka Cantonment and Dr. Shamsuzzoha, Proctor of Rajshahi University, sparkled the mass uprising. The government withdrew the State versus Sheikh Mujibur Rahman case and released all the accused on February 22 in 1969..
The SAC gave a rousing reception to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Race Course. DUCSU VP Tofael Ahmad conferred upon him ‘Bangabandhu.’ Title. In the first ever general election held on December 7 in 1970, Awami League swept East Pakistan, winning 167 out of 169 while Z A Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party secured 881 seats out of 144 in West Pakistan. Conspiracy began.
Bhutto representing the West Pakistani civil and the military bureaucrats demanded two Prime Ministers for two wings of Pakistan, with an ill motive of stopping Sheikh Mujib from becoming the prime minister of the whole of Pakistan. President Yahya Khan asked him to soften his six-point which Mujib rejected. Then as part of the conspiracy, the president postponed NA session, which was scheduled to be held on March 3.
In protest, the AL leader called for hartal in Dhaka on March 2 and in the whole of East Pakistan on March 3. He also said that he would give some important directions to the nation from a public meeting to be held at the Race Course on March 7.
East Pakistan Students League President Noore Alam Siddiqi, General Secretary Shahjahan Siraj, DUCSU Vice-President AS M Abdur Rab and General Secretary Abdul Quddus Makhan formed the Students Action Committee (SAC). On March 2nd at a large meeting held on the Dhaka University campus, the DUCSU VP hoisted the Bangladesh flag, having the map of East Pakistan in its red ball surrounded by green colour on all sides. EPSL General Secretary Shahjahan Siraj read out the Declaration of Independence..
In the mammoth public meeting held on March 7 at the Race Course, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman said : The agitation of this time is the agitation for liberation (from injustice) The agitation of this time is the agitation for Independence. He also said: If I become unable to give you command, fight against your enemies with whatever weapons you have. The great leader of Bengal called for non-cooperation movement and established his full authority in the then East Pakistan.
However, as a last step towards reconciliation, he put some conditions before joining the N A session summoned by Yahya Khan. These included withdrawal of martial law, to constitute probe committee to investigate killings of civilians by the Army, transfer of power to the people’s representatives and withdrawal of military to the cantonment.
But Yahya Khan was not ready to hand over power to Sheikh Mujib. He looked for new conspiracy and therefore took time to strike. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger writes in his book ‘The White House Years’ at page 850 that Yahya Khan expected a multiplicity of the parties to emerge in both West and East Pakistan, which would continually fight each other in each wing of the country and between the two wings; the president would, therefore, remain the arbiter of Pakistan politics.
Major General (Rtd) Fazal Moqueem Khan in his book ‘Pakistan’s crisis in leadership,’ writes at page 47 that the election results had placed the President on the horns of dilemma. The scheme of the things he had worked in mind, with the aid and advice of his advisors, had been shattered. He had to make a fresh plan.
Although Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested in the midnight on 26th March, the people of East Pakistan began their armed resistance with all that they had and did not wait for fresh command. It is because the guidelines were in the March 7. The non-cooperation movement politically organised the people and made them stubborn.
It is true that Major (later Lieutenant General) Ziaur Rahman declared formal Independence of Bangladesh on the 26th and the 27th March, it is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who did it in fact on March 7 and the speech delivered by him on that day was the guideline of Independence till it was achieved on December 16.
The Provisional Bangladesh Government was formed on April 17 At Mujibnagar in Kushtia with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the Head of the State. Tajuddin Ahmad became the Prime Minister and Syed Nazrul Islam the Acting Head of the State. The Cabinet Members were Captain Mansur Ali, AHM Qumruzzaman, Khondaker Mushtaq Ahmad, Abdul Mannan and MAG Usmany.
The Sector Commanders were, Major Ziaur Rahman and Captain Rafiqul Islam (Sector I), Major Khaled Mosharraf and Major A T M Haider (Sector-2), Major KM Sahfiullah and Captain ANM Nuruzzaman (Sector 3), Major Chitta Ranjan Dutta (Sector 4), Major Mir Shawakat Ali (Sector 5), Wing Commander Khademul Bashar (Sector 6), Major A K M Nazmul Haque and Major Quazi Nuruzzaman (Sector 7), Major Abu Osman Chowdhury and Major Abul Manzur (Sector 8), Major M A Jalil and Major Manzur (Sector 9), and Colonel Abu Taher and Squadron Leader Hamidullah Khan (Sector (11).
Colonel MAG Usmani was the Chief Commander of the Armed Forces.
