Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Nasir Uddin and Dr Md Shakhawat Ullah Chowdhury :
Bangabandhu called upon the people to observe civil disobedience movement with a call for total non-cooperation with the military junta. The movement was organised by Bangabandhu with a ten-point action programme. This was in defiance of the military junta led by President Yahya Khan. In a statement Bangabandhu said that the non-violent and non-co-operation movement would continue till the objectives-the immediate termination of martial law and transfer of power to the elected representatives-were achieved.
The historic 7th March speech was in fact a clarion call of Bangabandhu. Bangabandhu called mass attention for preparation for liberation war. “The father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman calling upon the Bangalees to prepare for the war to liberate Bangladesh from the exploitative Pakistani regime. The hallmark of his speech was ‘Ebarer Sangram Amader Muktir Sangram, Ebarer Sangram Swadhinatar Sangram, (this struggle is for our freedom, this struggle is for independence),” Bangabandhu declared from a mammoth rally at the historic Racecourse Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan) on this day in 1971. In his speech, resembling US President Abraham Lincoln’s historic Gettysburg speech, Bangabandhu said, “Since we have learnt to give blood, we’ll give more blood. We’ll definitely liberate the country, Insha Allah… Turn every house into a fort and counter [the enemy] with whatever you have.” He called for waging guerrilla warfare against the tyranny, deprivation, exploitation and savagery of the Pakistani dictators.’ As the New Nation observed ” The dynamic speech had virtually changed the course of the country’s glorious history. People of all ages and backgrounds rose in revolt against the Pakistani hyaenas and their local collaborators and waged guerrilla warfare.”
The tough programme of non-co-operation included the 10 points mentioned below:
1. No-tax campaign to continue.
2. The secretariat, government and semi-government offices, High Court and other courts throughout the country should observe hartal. Appropriate exemption to be announced from time to time.
3. Railway and ports may operate, but railway and port workers shall not co-operate if they are used for mobilisation of forces for the purpose of carrying out repression against the people.
4. Radio, television and newspapers shall give complete versions of the statements of the people’s representatives and shall not suppress news about people’s movement, otherwise Bangalees working in those establishments shall not co-operate.
5. Only local and inter-district trunk telephone communication shall function.
6. All educational institutions shall remain closed.
7. Banks should not effect remittances to the western wing either through the State Bank or otherwise.
8. Black flags shall be hoisted on all buildings every day.
9. Complete and partial hartal may be declared at any moment, depending on the situation. and,
10. A sangram parishad (council of action) shall be organised in each union, mahalla, thana, sub-division and district under the leadership of the local Awami league units.
The non-cooperation movement eventually evolved into the creation of a kind of Awami league government. The junta flew troop reinforcements into East Pakistan at night. From March 10 onwards leaders of minority party groups visited East Pakistan to meet Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. They exchanged views with him, slating Bhutto’s provocative attitude.
On March 15, Sheikh Mujib expressed his determination to continue non-cooperation movement with ‘fresh action programs.’ On March 18, He rejected the commission of enquiry set up by ML Administrator, Zone B as it would serve no purpose.
At a crucial stage of the non-cooperation movement the Dhaka talk between Bangabandhu and Yahya took place on March 19. When all efforts for a political solution failed, Yahya imposed military solution. On the fateful night of March 25 the Pakistan army went on a rampage, killing unarmed civilians in Dhaka with unprecedented brutality.
The call for non-cooperation was the clarion call of Bangabandhu. The situation that was created compelled him to go for complete non-cooperation. There were lots of provocative measures to deal with through mass resistance following the proclamation of the postponement of Dhaka session of the National assembly on March 3, 1971. In his historic March 7 speech Bangabandhu spelled out the guidelines of non-cooperation. Below is an excerpt from his speech:
“Let me make it clear without ambiguity that all courts, magistracies, government offices and educational institutions will remain closed for an indefinite period. In order that people do not suffer and my people do not get through pain all other activities will continue within the ambit of general strike. Rickshaws, horse carriages, trains and river vessels will ply. The Supreme Court, High Court, judge courts, semi-government offices, Wapda-nothing will work. Employees will collect their salaries on the twenty-eighth. The owners of industries will make certain that the wages of workers who have taken part in the strike for the past week are duly paid to them. I shall tell employees of the government, my word must be heard, and my instructions followed. Until freedom comes to my land, all taxes will be held back from payment. Remember, employees at radio and television, if radio does not get our message across, no Bengali will go to the radio station. If television does put forth our point of view, no Bengali will go to television. Bank will remain open for two hours to enable people to engage in transactions. But there will be no transfer of even a single penny from East Bengal to West Pakistan. Telephone and telegram services will continue in East Bengal and news can be dispatched overseas.”
All of us perhaps know the history of civil disobedience or non-cooperation movement launched by the protagonists of quit-India movement in undivided India. Non-cooperation is a non-violent movement observed in a peaceful manner. But the non-violent nature of the movement could not be upheld because of incidence of sporadic violence provoked by the British Raj. The Khilafat and non-cooperation movement during the British Period stirred the whole society to its depth. The impacts were far fetching. Aimed at extermination of British colonialism, the movement led to the development of Indian nationalism.
Since then, the movement for self-determination had been gaining momentum. The lesson from this type of non-cooperation movement was that true nationalists did not want any alien rulers to continue to rule. Inspired by Bengali nationalism, the non-cooperation movement launched by Bangabandhu was aimed at dislodging the semi-colonialism that plundered our wealth and resources through exploitation. It was also non-violent. But incidences of skirmishes and firing by the army accounted much for violence. The logic of the movement was upheld when Yahya dilly-dallied in ensuring peaceful transfer of power to the elected representatives, and let loose state terrorism upon the unarmed Bengali civilians.
Bangabandhu tried his best to keep the wheel of the economy moving despite disturbance. Banking, procurement and agricultural activities, and all their programmes, functioned normally. Relief and rehabilitation functioned, and wage labourers involved in development projects continued to receive payments due to them.
The historic and fiery March 7 speech of Bangabandhu was full of programmes for non-cooperation and preparation for the War of Liberation. True, Bangabandhu set up a parallel government in defiance of the central command by issuing directions amid a non-cooperation movement. The people from all walks of life paid heed to his instructions, as if Bangabandhu were the de facto head of the government of East Pakistan.
The Pakistani army was waiting for a mortal strike and the moment came when Yahya Khan before leaving Dacca in the night of 25th March ordered army crack down as a military solution to the post election political impasse. ‘Unfortunately Yahya Khan opted for a crack down instead of providing a political solution of the crisis. ‘The apprehensive crack down began after 11.pm of 25th March 1971. The army launched an attack all on a sudden on Bengalis in a frantic attempt to ‘crush the autonomy movement’. In the fateful night of 25 March the soldiers started going on rampage killing unarmed civilians at Dhaka with unprecedented brutality in the name of operation search light. According to a report, “on March 25, 1971 under cover of darkness , one of the most gruesome crimes in the history of mankind was perpetrated by the blood thirsty military junta against a whole population of seventy-five million, constituting the majority of the people of Pakistan.”Bangabondhu in a clandestine broadcast transmitted the call for declaration of independence on 26th March 1971.He also ‘declared the 75 million people of East Pakistan as citizens of the sovereign independent Bangladesh’. Since then people were fighting gallantly with the occupation force across the country. The official Proclamation of Independence issued on 10 April 1971 confirmed the declaration of independence by Bangabandhu.
The first target of the operation search light seemed to have been the students. Caught completely by surprise, a large number of students perhaps (may be 200) were killed in Iqbal and Jagannath halls. Bodies of the victims were smouldering in burnt-out rooms, other being scattered outside and some dumped in nearby drain.
As the varsity campus came under attack, other columns of troops moved on to attack Rajarbag and Plikhana with tanks and artillery killing the security forces at night when they were sleeping. The Rajarbag police barrack was attacked without warning with mortar, tanks by a large number of army cut-throats. Although there was resistance, most policemen were believed to be asleep when the attack occurred and to have died during the fighting. The barrack building was completely leveled by heavy arm fire and was gutted by fire. The East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) barrack at Pilkhana was attacked by the similar army forces. The number of EPR soldiers killed was unknown, although reliable estimates indicated that nearly 1000 EPR were stationed over there. A large number of EPR was reported to be trucked away. Their fate was unknown.
About three battalions of troops were used in the massacre at Dacca -one of armored, one of artillery and one of infantry. They went on rampage killing the defenseless people indiscriminately, burning houses and engaging in loot and arson. There happened to be colossal massacre with Bengalis dying all the way around the city. The crack down that ‘killed all those hundreds in the space of a few hours included some of the most eminent men of letters ‘in the country including Munir Chowdhury, Dhirendranath Dutta , GC Dev and Jyotirmoy Guhathakurata and others. Leading political activists were arrested, others being killed. The military removed dead bodies of numerous unarmed civilians including hawkers and rickshaw pullers. There are photographs showing vultures and dogs eating dead bodies left in open space.
The situation that turned abnormal after the First March, 1971 due to the postponement of the date of National Assembly carried some ominous signs. On the one hand mass resistance was going on with the participation of some hyperactive student radicals and the plot of the army generals was going on to stage a Dacca drama of mindless killing spree on the other. In fact Yahya set the stage for final blow. Dialogue for negotiations was used to cover mobilisation of forces in East Bengal for creating a reign of horror.On 23rd March Mujib rejected the invitation of Yahya Khan to attend the meeting of the leaders of the Parliamentary groups in the National Assembly in the wake of widespread killing of unarmed civilians in some important places (Bangladesh Documents vol. I 1999)While Bangabondhu demanded withdrawal of Martial law to harness the process of transition to democracy notification issued by the Cabinet division on 6th March, 1971 to appoint Tikka Khan as the Governor of East Pakistan replacing extremely gentleman vice Admiral S.M. Ahsan was a great Provocation. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court did not administer the oath of Tikka Khan.
Before staging the violent showdown on 25 March, 1971 Yahya troops caused bloodshed in several places opening fire on the demonstrators and violent protestors. There was military action in Saidpur, Rangpur. Joydevpur, Tongi, Gazipur, Chittagong and other places with heavy firing upon the civilian population and of atrocities being committed on them. The police forces were completely by-passed thus indicating bad intention of military junta. Reports were pouring from Chittagong of heavy firing from 23rd to 24th March, 1971 as there was resistance around the sea port for unloading sophisticated arms brought from Swat. In fact the junta set the stage for dress rehearsal for horrendous act of genocide targeting the Bengalis.
The operation search light marked the beginning of wholesale genocide by the Pakistan occupation army with Mukti Bahini giving tough resistance here and there applying guerilla tactics. The genocide was “deliberately planned and executed ruthlessly by the Pak army and was marked among other unspeakable atrocities by the systematic decimation of Bengali intellectuals, including eminent professors, lawyers, journalists, doctors, students, etc.”
So the new nation state of Bangladesh was born through heavy bloodshed. Supreme sacrifices made by the martyrs are ever written in blood. The Liberation War of Bangladesh fought by the mukti Bahini, both shaheeds and ghazi, remains “an immortal saga of pain, sacrifices and sufferings”. Now there has been a spontaneous mass appeal for the trials of war criminals that included murderous Pakistani occupation forces and their quislings and cohorts.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Professor, Department of Public Administration, Chittagong University, Nasir Uddin, Lecturer of Department of Public Administration, Chittagong University and Dr Md Shakhawat Ullah Chowdhury, Assistant Professor of Social Science , Department of General Education , Southern University Bangladesh)
