Liberation war- Part 1

Bangladesh has a prideful past, a history which is written with golden words, tears of mothers, blood of my brothers and by the dismissal of prestige of my sisters : the Liberation War against Pakistan in 1971. This was the first time we fought for the recognition as a distinct nation. The endless bloodshed and struggle for centuries came to an end (at least from outsiders) with the maturation and rise of "Bangabandhu" Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of the country and the architect of the nation.

The Liberation War and the independence was not an act of a single person or event. Rafiq, Saalam, Barqat, Jabbar, and many others gave their life during the Language Movement of 1952. Many were imprisoned and killed protesting Ayub Khan's military rules: 6-point of movement of 1966, Mass Uprising of 1969, etc.

Finally, Bangabandhu asked his people to raise arms against the Pakistani military who killed hundreds of people during the peaceful protests of the 1971.

If you tell the story of the war, you must mention the bravery and far-sightedness of Tajuddin Ahmed, Syed Nazrul Islam, Captain Monsoor Ali, Kamrujjaman, General Ataul Gani Osmani, and many others.

Three milion people were massacared by the Pakistni military and local collaborators. Hundreds of thousands of women were raped. Village after village, town after town, were burned to the ground. There were dead bodies lying in every plain, and floating in every river. There was hardly any family who did not lose something in this war.

At the very end, facing an imminent defeat, the coward Pakistani military and the local collaborators systematically killed many of the leading intellectuals of the country.

These war criminals have never faced justice for crime against the humanity. We should raise conscience among the people of the world to try these criminals. If we forget, as Elie Weasel depicted, "we are guilty, we are accomplices."

In August 1947, the Partition of British India gave birth to two new states named Pakistan and India. Areas containing the Muslim-majority became Pakistan while areas with Hindu and Non-Muslim majority states became India, which was later pronouced as a secular country with equal rights to citizens of all religions. The new nation of Pakistan included two geographically and culturally separate areas in the east and the west of India. The western zone was popularly (and for a period of time, also officially) termed West Pakistan and the eastern zone (modern-day Bangladesh) was initially termed East Bengal and later, East Pakistan. It was widely perceived that West Pakistan dominated politically and exploited the East economically, leading to many grievances.

On 25 March 1971, rising political discontent and cultural nationalism in East Pakistan was met by brutal suppressive force from the ruling elite of the West Pakistan establishment in what came to be termed Operation Searchlight.

The violent crackdown by West Pakistan forces led to East Pakistan declaring its independence as the state of Bangladesh and to the start of civil war. The war led to a sea of refugees (estimated at the time to be about 10 million) flooding into the eastern provinces of India. Facing a mounting humanitarian and economic crisis, India started actively aiding and organizing the Bangladeshi resistance army known as the Mukti Bahini. 

  

Declaration of independence:

Official declaration by Shekh Mujib:

Today Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country. On Thursday night, West Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka. Many innocent and unarmed have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh. Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other, are going on. The Bengalis are fighting the enemy with great courage for an independent Bangladesh. May Allah aid us in our fight for freedom. Joy Bangla.  

Sheikh Mujib also called upon the people to resist the occupation forces through a radio message. Mujib was arrested on the night of 25–26 March 1971 at about 1:30 a.m. (as per Radio Pakistan’s news on 29 March 1971).

A telegram containing the text of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's declaration reached some students in Chittagong. The message was translated to Bangla by Dr. Manjula Anwar. The students failed to secure permission from higher authorities to broadcast the message from the nearby Agrabad Station of Radio Pakistan. They crossed Kalurghat Bridge into an area controlled by an East Bengal Regiment under Major Ziaur Rahman. Bengali soldiers guarded the station as engineers prepared for transmission. At 19:45 hrs on 27 March 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman broadcast announcement of the declaration of independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur. On 28 March Major Ziaur Rahman made another announcement,which is as follows:

This is Shadhin Bangla Betar Kendro. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangobondhu sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that the independent People's Republic of Bangladesh has been established. At his direction, I have taken command as the temporary Head of the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I call upon all Bengalis to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our Motherland. By the grace of Allah, victory is ours. Joy Bangla.

Audio of Zia's Announcement (interview - Belal Mohammed)

The Kalurghat Radio Station's transmission capability was limited. The message was picked up by a Japanese ship in Bay of Bengal. It was then re-transmitted by Radio Australia and later by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

M A Hannan, an Awami League leader from Chittagong, is said to have made the first announcement of the declaration of independence over the radio on 26 March 1971^. There is controversy now as to when Major Zia gave his speech. BNP sources maintain that it was 26 March, and there was no message regarding declaration of independence from Mujibur Rahman. Pakistani sources, like Siddiq Salik in Witness to Surrender had written that he heard about Mujibor Rahman's message on the Radio while Operation Searchlight was going on, and Maj. Gen. Hakeem A. Qureshi in his book The 1971 Indo-Pak War: A Soldier's Narrative, gives the date of Zia's speech as 27 March 1971^.

26 March 1971 is considered the official Independence Day of Bangladesh, and the name Bangladesh was in effect henceforth. In July 1971, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi openly referred to the former East Pakistan as Bangladesh. Some Pakistani and Indian officials continued to use the name "East Pakistan" until 16 December 1971.