Page 24 - MUJIB100- Magazine on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

1966 On February 5, 1966, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman presented his historic six-point programme known as
Bangabandhu—An Unpublished Interview
Nirmalendu Goon
Bangabandhu—Hoping to meet you, like many other people, I went to your house on the evening of
March 25. But you didn't come out that day since you were inside a room, busy talking to journalists from
home and abroad, as well as to your own party workers. You were busy too talking in secret to Awami
League leaders about extremely important issues in some other room inside the house. And that was
1968
why on that ill-fated evening I wasn't able to meet you.
* charge of treason. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was shown arrested on January 18, while already in jail.
Yes, Mr. Yahya had le Dhaka secretly without declaring publicly that the ongoing talks with me had come
to an end, and without telling me anything. To have le in the middle of the talks abruptly was for us all a
signal of imminent danger. I thought now that Mr. Yahya and Mr. Bhu o would no longer be talking to us,
either in Urdu, Punjabi or in English, and of course not in Bangla –they would now be talking to us only
with their weapons. That was the language Yahya Khan's predecessor Field Marshal Ayub Khan also used
to talk against the Six Point Movement!
* 1969
Exactly! A li le a er I had le your house and around 11 that night, “Opera on Searchlight”, an assault
launched with heavy weaponry began. I was standing in front of Eden Girls College in Azimpur at that
me, observing youths felling trees to set up barricades. Just then, the skies of Dhaka were lit up by a
thundershower of bullets. The indiscriminate massacre of people by the Pakistani army had begun.
“Opera on Searchlight!” They launched an assault on Pilkhana and Rajarbagh. From Jagannath Hall and
Sergant Zahirul Huq Hall, terrifying, bone-chilling words dri ed towards us, words unheard by us before
that me. Pitching a tent in front of TSC, Pakistan soldiers also entered nearby Rokeya and Shamsunnahar
Hall.
* 1970
I knew that instead of being able to persuade me to move away even a hair's length from the “Six Point
Demand”, and instead of handing over power to the Awami League, the party that had won the na onal
elec ons, Pakistan's thick-headed army junta and its allies Zulfiqar Ali Bhu o would pounce on my
unarmed people like fierce hyenas. What I wanted was for the people of the world to view and know
what they were up to. I declared Bangladesh's independence soon a er the army crackdown began. To
broadcast my declara on of independence, I had kept a few E.P.R. soldiers ready. Transmi ers in hand,
they had waited for the green signal from me. In the declara on I said, “From this day Bangladesh is an
independent country.” To my people I said as well, “Con nue to wage war ll the very last Pakistani
soldier occupying our land is driven away from Bengal's soil; do so ll we a ain victory decisively.”
Soon a erwards, Pakistani soldiers surrounded my house and arrested me.
I knew they had me in the sight of their weapons all the me. They really didn't want to arrest me; what
they intended to do is murder me. They thought I would try to flee, and while I was escaping they would 1971
murder me somewhere around my Road 32 house, informing the world a erwards that Sheikh Mujib had
been murdered in a feud between Awami League fac ons by extremist elements of his own party. That
would have duped the world totally. My own people would be fooled too. I didn't let the Pakistani
strategy succeed.
I was the leader of the majority party in Pakistan; the people of East Bengal loved me with all their heart
and soul. Why then would I be the one to flee?
* General Yahya Khan came to Dhaka and held a series of mee ngs with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
I supported your sensible decision. Nawab Sirajuddaula got caught in Bhagban Golai while trying to
escape through a riverine exit. Did you have that that fateful occasion in mind?
the `charter of freedom of the Bengali na on'. It drew the roadmap for the independence of
Bangladesh under the garb of greater autonomy. The programme hit hard at the roots of Pakistani
colonial rule over the Bengalis. In the Council Mee ng held during March 18-20, Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman was elected the President of Awami League. He travelled far and wide to gain support for
his 6-Point programme and was arrested 8 mes, during the campaign, leading the regime to arrest
him finally on May 8, 1966. He was imprisoned for nearly 3 years during this me.
On January 3, the Ayub government filed a case, known as the 'Agartala Conspiracy Case' against
several Bengalis (Poli cians, members of the Army, Navy and Air Forces, Civil Servants etc) on the
He was made number 1 accused and the official name of the case was 'The State vs Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman and Others'. Along with him, 34 others were implicated in the case, bringing the charge of
forced secession of East Bengal with the assistance of India. Mass movement spread across the
country demanding the release of all the accused including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On June 19, the
trial of the accused began at Dhaka Kurmitola Cantonment under intense security and scru ny.
The Agartala Conspiracy Case resulted in a na onwide student movement and mass upsurge
demanding the withdrawal of the case and the release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. With con nued
pressure from the public, the Ayub Khan government on February 22 was forced to withdraw the
Agartala Conspiracy Case and release Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others. A erwards, Sheikh Mujib
was awarded with the tle 'Bangabandhu' at a recep on of millions of students and masses in a
mammoth public mee ng organized by Central Student Ac on Commi ee at the Racecourse (now
Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka on February 23. At a discussion mee ng held on December 5 to
observe the death anniversary of Shaheed Suhrawardy, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
declared that henceforth East Pakistan would be called Bangladesh.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Awami League President, urged his countrymen to elect
Awami League candidates on the basis of the 6-point demand in the country's first general elec ons
held on December 7 (Na onal Assembly), and December 17 (Provincial Assembly), barring few seats
in the cyclone affected coastal areas in the south. He chose 'boat' as the symbol to represent Awami
League and the na on's hope. When a million people died in a catastrophic cyclone in the coastal
areas on November 12, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman suspended the elec on campaign and rushed to
the affected areas. Awami League achieved absolute majority in the general elec ons on December
7, winning 167 (including 7 women reserved seats) out of the 169 seats of the Na onal Assembly in
East Pakistan and 298 seats (including 10 women reserved seats) of the 310 seats of the Provincial
Assembly of East Pakistan.
Following general Yahya khan's postponement of the Na onal Assembly session on March 1, 1971,
only two days before the session was due to take place, every sec on of the Bengalis
instantaneously came out onto the streets in massive demonstra ons. The Bengalis' aspira ons for
freedom reached an indomitable height. From March 1 onward Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman was virtually running East Pakistan as its de-facto head of government. On March 7, in his
historic speech before the millions of people at the Racecourse Maidan (Suhrawardy Udyan),
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called his fellow countrymen to take all out prepara ons for
the war of libera on and independence of Bangladesh. In this grave situa on Pakistan's President
between March 16 and March 24, none of which brought about any resolu on. On the midnight of
March 25, the Pakistan army launched its heinous campaign of genocide against the unarmed
Bengalis. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman proclaimed the Independence of Bangladesh in the early hours of
March 26.