Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth D r . H a b i b S i D D i q u i B a n g l a d e s h : a s h o r t h i s t o r y o f i t s B i r t h ‘the struggle this time is for emancipation, the struggle this time is for independence’ Sheikh Mujibur rahMan Dr. Habib Siddiqui an ovi eBooks Publication 2024 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth B a n g l a d e s h : a s h o r t h i s t o r y o f i t s B i r t h D r. H a b i b S i d d i q u i Dr. Habib Siddiqui Contents Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Introduction: My own recollection of the War of Liberation Chapter 2 The March to Madness of Massacre of Mid-night March 25 Chapter 3 Operation Searchlight the making of Bangladesh Chapter 4 The Fall of East Pakistan and the Liberation of Bangladesh 6 7 15 31 63 71 Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth Appendix A Results of the 1970 National Assembly Election Appendix B The Six Point Formula of Awami League Appendix C The Lahore Resolution Appendix D Twenty-One Point Program Reference books Abbreviations 88 90 92 95 99 103 Dr. Habib Siddiqui Dedication To all those unsung heroes and activists like my father without whose unflinching advocacy, support and enthu- siasm Pakistan would not have emerged in 1947 and the freedom fighters like Mosharraf Hossain who dared to fight back and whose youthful fervor, bravery and zealotry could not be subdued by the bayonets of the Pakistan military to see their homeland liberated as an independent Bangladesh in 1971 and the fallen victims of the civil war on all the sides whose lives were cut short prematurely due to the hei- nous conspiracy of the few and for being just at the wrong place at the wrong time. an ovi eBooks Publication 2024 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth Preface Bangladesh emerged as an independent state after a nine- month long bloody civil war when Pakistan military forces surrendered on December 16, 1971 to joint Bangladesh- Indian forces. Pakistan was dismembered and its eastern wing – East Pakistan – was lost, which has ever since come to exist as Bangladesh. The country has a rich cultural and historical past, the product of the repeated influx of varied peoples, bringing with them the Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Mongol-Mughal, Arab, Persian, Turkic, and European cultures. While the contact with Muslim traders began in the 7th century of the Common Era (C.E.) the vast territories of today’s Bangladesh and adjoining states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura in today’s India came under Muslim rule at the dawn of the 13th century C.E. Since then, Islam has played a crucial role in the region’s history and politics. In the 16th century, Bengal (today’s Bangladesh) was absorbed into the Mughal Empire. Portuguese traders and Christian missionaries reached Bengal in the latter part of the 15th century. They were followed by others - the Dutch, the French, and the British East India Companies. The territory was ultimately lost Dr. Habib Siddiqui to the East India Company beginning in 1757 when the Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa – Nawab Siraj ad- Dowla – lost in the Battle of Plassey. It is hard to believe today that at the time of its capitulation Bengal was the richest possession of the British imperialism. In 1859, the British Crown replaced the East India Company, extending British dominion from Bengal in the east to the Indus River in the west. The British colonial rule ended in 1947 when a Muslim- majority Pakistan with two wings – East Pakistan and West Pakistan – was established on August 14. It was separated by a thousand miles of Hindu-majority India, which was established later after the midnight of August 15. While the overwhelming majority of the people living inside Pakistan professed Islam, outside the religious identity there was very little common between the cultures of the people living in the two wings. They were linguistically different. So, when the Pakistani leaders wanted to establish a common lingua franca – Urdu – to solidify unity, the Bengali-speaking East Pakistanis protested. They shed their blood to make sure that Bengali would have an equal status as Urdu was and succeeded. The East Pakistan based opposition political party – the Awami League - campaigned for regional autonomy since the early 1950s. Under its charismatic leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Awami League succeeded in uniting the East Pakistanis behind its Six-Point program in the Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth national election of 1970 winning all but two seats in East Pakistan (160 out of 162 allotted seats from East Pakistan, and 300 overall from Pakistan). The military government of General Yahya Khan, under the advice of the People’s Party of Pakistan (which was a runner up in the national election), led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, however, refused to accept the people’s verdict and hand-over political power to the Awami League (AL). Instead, the West Pakistani leaders went on the offensive and committed what can arguably be called genocide in 1971. No official records exist as to the tolls of the war. As is often the case, the history of Bangladesh came to be written by the victors and not the losers. And there were too many who lost – for being on the wrong side of history. They included the Urdu-speaking minority Muslims who had settled from Bihar, West Bengal and other parts of India when British India was partitioned into Pakistan and India. The losers included pro-Pakistan sympathizers – both activists and pacifists – many of whom were Bengali- speaking Muslims and Buddhists living in the tribal areas like Chittagong Hill Tract districts. Almost five decades have passed since Bangladesh gained her independence. The country has made remarkable progress in many sectors. But the country has been very unstable politically since its founder Sheikh Mujib was assassinated in a military coup in August 15, 1975. That very day, Khondaker Mushtaq Ahmad (considered a Dr. Habib Siddiqui conspirator), who had hitherto served as a minister under Mujib, was sworn in as the new President. Within his short tenure of 83 days, four major leaders who had led the provisional government in exile during the Liberation War of 1971 were also murdered in the jail (on November 3, 1975) by the same perpetrators that had killed Sheikh Mujib. The other important polarizing figure Ziaur Rahman – a freedom fighter who had fought in Bangladesh’s liberation war and had benefited from Mujib’s murder – gained de facto power as head of the government already under martial law imposed by the Mushtaq government. He took over the presidency in April of 1977 and then lifted the martial law. The next year (1978) he won the presidency in a sham and highly controversial election that saw limited political activity. 1 (Many Bangladeshis, esp. pro- AL partisans, see him as a co-conspirator in the killings of Sheikh Mujib and his family members. Zia founded his new party - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Others see him as a savior.) In February 1979, he restored parliamentary government after elections gave his party a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. ------------------------------------------------------------- 1. i went to the polling center in khulshi, Chittagong city, with my father to cast our votes on june 3, 1978. The polling center was controlled by Zia-hoodlums who told that we need not cast our vote since such have already been cast on our behalf. Zia won easily in that election against (retd.) General Osmani. Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth Zia survived all but the last of 21 coup and mutiny attempts, meeting a similar fate and was killed in May 1981 by a fellow Army officer, who had also participated in the liberation war. Zia was succeeded in power by his vice president, Abdus Sattar, who was deposed the following March by his army chief, Lt. Gen. Hussain Mohammad Ershad. Declaring martial law, Ershad became Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA), suspended the 1972 constitution, and banned political parties. Following the footsteps of his predecessor, Ershad assumed presidency in 1983 and formed his own party, Jatiya Party (JP). He was elected president in a sham election in 1986 that saw no opposition candidate. A popular movement forced him to resign in 1990 and elections were held under a care-taker government (CTG) in February of 1991. In that election Khaleda Zia (the widow of Ziaur Rahman) and her party BNP won a plurality of votes and formed the government. The BNP and the AL have alternately held power until 2007 when a military-backed, interim caretaker regime suspended parliamentary elections, planned for January 2007, in an effort to reform the fragile and imperfect political system and root out corruption. But in that process, it itself became highly corrupt. Reportedly, many of the caretaker government advisers and army generals bought mansions overseas or are known to run multiple business enterprises. Under pressure from the diplomatic Dr. Habib Siddiqui corps in Dhaka, that interim government held a national election to return the country to a democratic rule in December 2008. In that election of 2008, Sheikh Hasina Wazed (the eldest daughter of Sheikh Mujib) and her party (AL) grabbed 49% of popular votes, capturing 230 of the 300 contested seats in the parliament. She has been the Prime Minister ever since. Subsequently, the provision for the interim CTG, deemed necessary for holding a fair election, was abolished by the ruling alliance. The BNP protested but to no avail. Not surprisingly, the AL won big, almost uncontested in the elections of 2014 and 2018, that have been widely criticized in the international media for being highly flawed and unfair. Bangladesh has made great progress in food security since independence, and the economy has grown at an average of about six percent (8% in 2018 and 7.9% in 2019) over the last two decades despite endemic corruption, political instability and poor infrastructure. The country is included among the Next Eleven or N-11 of Goldman Sachs and D-8 economies, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US $317 billion (2019). It is ranked 29th in the world in 2019 in terms of GDP ranking per the PPP basis. Despite the devastating effect of Corona Virus (Covid-19), it is expected that Bangladesh will have a GDP of (US) $861 billion in terms of the PPP (purchasing power parity) with a 2% GDP growth rate in 2020 (while Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth the GDP growth rate is expected to rise to 9.5% in 2021). Behind China, Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of ready-made garments to the western world. Other important emerging industries include shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods manufacturing. With the global demand for green fibers on the rise, the jute-sector is also re-emerging. Remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East, have been another major source of foreign exchange earnings. Other important export sectors include fish and seafood, ceramics, cement, fertilizer, construction materials, cane and leather products. Bangladesh has also made major strides in its human development index. Notwithstanding all the pluses for its economic miracles and successes, politically Bangladesh is failing, or so it seems. As in other parts of South Asia, political dynasties have long been a feature of the Bangladesh political landscape since the country’s independence in 1971. The Bangladeshi politics have been dominated by the bitter rivalry between two families: Ziaur Rahman’s widow, Khaleda Zia (the leader of the BNP since 1981) and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s daughter Sheikh Hasina (the leader of Bangladesh Awami League since 1981). This trend may continue even after the death of these two leaders. More problematically, the system of government in Bangladesh is viewed by most political observers and experts as an illiberal or a hybrid democracy where Dr. Habib Siddiqui opposition parties have very little voice for a participative and inclusive democracy. The opposition parties have criticized Awami League’s rising dependency on law enforcement agencies such as the police force and for holding back people’s freedom of speech. The Bangladeshi nation is polarized and divided as never before. In recent years, the fissure and rift have simply widened and deepened with three-peat wins of the Awami League. Will Bangladesh become another failed state? The coming years will answer that question. The idea of writing this book discussing the birth of Bangladesh was suggested by Thanos Kalamidas, one of the three founding members and editor of the Ovi Magazine. I am thankful to him for making this work available to a wider readers’ circle. Peace, shanti, salam, Habib Siddiqui Philadelphia, USA July 4, 2020 Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth Chapter 1 Introduction: My own recollection of the War of Liberation March 26 is a very important day in the history of Bangladesh. It is celebrated as the Independence Day of Bangladesh although the true liberation of the country came some nine months later on 16 December, 1971. I was a high school student studying in a cadet college. Our school was closed sine die on March 8, 1971 - a day after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had delivered historic speech in the Ramna Race Course of Dhaka (now the capital city of Bangladesh) where he called a nationwide strike and launched a non-violent non-cooperation movement against the Government of Pakistan. His party – the Awami League – had won 160 of the 300 National Assembly seats (all from East Pakistan) contested in the parliamentary election of 1970, and was supposed to form the government. But the military regime of General Yahya Khan with the backing from the People’s Party of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, which had won only 88 seats (all from West Pakistan) in the election, won’t hand over the power to Sheikh Mujib. Dr. Habib Siddiqui The 1970 national election result was a big surprise to the military regime. In its worst nightmares, it probably never imagined Sheikh Mujib’s East Pakistan-centric party (the Awami League) to win with a simple majority (all but two seats from East Pakistan). The military junta had falsely assumed that a coalition government would emerge, which would allow the military to maintain its sway over the political developments inside the country. The election result was, therefore, shocking and unacceptable to the ruling regime. In this, it perceived a divided country separated by a thousand miles of hostile India. It did not want to accept the mere fact that years of domination from West Pakistan had already alienated the people living in the eastern wing of Pakistan. As a matter of fact, since August 14, 1947 when Pakistan gained her independence from British India, the political elite (which also included military) from the western part of the country had been ruling the country for all but two years (1956-58). It is worth noting here that in those years, the Bengalis living in the East Pakistan comprised the majority (54%) of the population of Pakistan. Years of negligence and discrimination from the central government, which had spent less than 29% of its budget in East Pakistan, had made Bengali nationalism the rallying ground for most Bengali speaking people to support the political agenda of the Awami League, led by its charismatic leader Sheikh Mujib, fondly known then as the Bangabandhu (the Friend of Bengal). The party Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth participated in and won the 1970 election with a Six-point formula, promising regional autonomy to the federating units so that political, economic and social aspirations of its Bengali speaking people would be met under a federal system of government. Instead of convening the National Assembly session on March 3, 1971 and handing over power to the majority Awami League, the Pakistani President General Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed it, thus, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan. Within weeks hundreds of demonstrators and supporters of the Awami League were killed by the police, further worsening the situation. In his speech at the Race Course on March 7, 1971, Bangabandhu declared a four-point demand to consider the national assembly meeting on March 25, 1971. These were: (a) the immediate withdrawal of the martial law; (b) immediate withdrawal of all military personnel to their barracks; (c) an inquiry into the loss of life; (d) immediate transfer of power to the elected representative of the people before the assembly meeting of March 25. In spite of much pressure from the hawkish elements within the student groups, he resisted the temptation to declare secession of East Pakistan (Bangladesh) from Pakistan. Sheikh Mujib further strengthened his position by issuing 35 directives for the management of East Pakistan on March 15. On March 16-24, Mujib, Bhutto and Yahya Dr. Habib Siddiqui held a series of meetings, which appeared to give the impression of attempting to forge a compromise. As the negotiations proceeded, the country was extremely tense. When an army ship – MV Swat - full of ammunition docked at the port city of Chittagong in East Pakistan on March 18, hundreds of thousands of Bengalis blockaded the port to prevent it from being unloaded. The deployment of West Pakistani soldiers and the shipment of arms and ammunitions meant that the central government was not serious in resolving the constitutional crisis peacefully and was using the so-called negotiations as a ploy to misdirect attention. Student leaders within the pro-Awami League Students’ League raised new flags for Bangladesh and demanded that Sheikh Mujib declare independence. But Mujib, warned by his wise policy advisers, did not want to give the military regime an excuse to try him and his party leaders for committing treason against the state. As such, he stuck to his demand and continued negotiations. In my neighborhoods along Zakir Hossain Road in East Nasirabad and south Khulshi, Chittagong, I could see college students taking para-military type training without guns and rifles. Fearing military incursion, they put up barricades on the streets. They were ready to lay down their lives when and if Bangabandhu declared independence. In our upscale neighborhood, many non-Bengali merchants, businessmen and jute mill owners and Bangladesh: A Short History of Its Birth managers lived. Fearing undue violence, which might ensue any time, my father (who was the vice president of Chittagong City Awami League – North, and also president of Bipani Bitan Merchants’ Association 2. ) and some of his friends (e.g., Reazuddin Biswas and Abdur Rahman Bhuiyan) in the locality formed a peace committee and ensured that everyone’s life and properties would not be threatened by any troublemaker. Then came the fateful night of March 25, 1971 when perhaps thousands of Bengali-speaking East Pakistanis were killed in Dhaka and Chittagong by Pakistan military. Rumors circulated late at night that General Yahya Khan had ordered the arrest of Bangabandhu and some of his aids before flying back to Islamabad. In Chittagong, thanks to border security forces of East Pakistan Rifles (EPR), reporting to Major Rafiq, the city (minus the seaport) was still under the control of local Bangladeshis; the military cantonment in Sholashahar, within walking distance from my home, was surrounded by them. It was said that more than a thousand new army recruits from East Pakistan were killed while they were asleep in their barracks by the West Pakistani non-Bengali forces. Included amongst the casualty was an East Pakistani colonel – M.R. Chowdhury. No one seemed to know the whereabouts of another high ranking (East Pakistani) military officer – Brigadier Majumdar. ------------------------------------------------------------- 2, bipani bitan was the largest shopping mall in the port city of Chittagong. Dr. Habib Siddiqui On March 26, I saw a cyclostyle copy of the declaration of independence made by Bangabandhu, which was apparently received by Captain Moslem (a Bangladeshi) of the Signal Corps of Pakistan Army – who was our neighbor. 3. This copy is same as the documentation which later came to be known as the Independence Declaration of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (transmitted via wireless soon after midnight) in which he called upon the people of Bangladesh to resist the Pakistan occupation army with whatever they had until the occupiers were expelled from the soil of Bangladesh. In the late afternoon of March 26, I walked towards Sholashahar and witnessed rifle-carrying paramilitary forces of Ansar surrounding the home of a Urdu-speaking manager or owner of a jute mill who reportedly had shot bullets at the crowd on the street. To get him out of his house, some people threw fire-bombs at his well-protected concrete home. It was a disturbing scene for me to watch and I returned home. ------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The cyclostyle copy was brought to me by Mohammad abdul Quddus, a contractor, who had worked on construction projects in our house ‘Prantik’. he was an older gentleman who belonged to a pro-liberation communist party.