It is known that at the last moment, the West Pakistani leaders had accepted everything of Mujib except the demand in the 6 points for two separate currencies. True, there was no country on earth at the time with two separate currencies. When Mujib declined to withdraw it, the generals with Bhutto's consent has the backup plan: it was to go for a genocide to scare the leaders and the population of East Bengal to surrender. It appears that Mujib didn't have any backup plan. Kamal Hossain was waiting on the 25th night for a phone call from the generals which never came.
On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 1:30 PM, Shahadat Hussaini <shahadathussaini@hotmail.com> wrote:
Three are 100% evidence that Mr. Mujib did not at all betrayed the talk (negotiation). At that climax situation, he did not have much control on the situation either from left, right or middle in his party stalwarts and among students (leaders like 4 khalifa). He wanted to keep Pakistan, a loose confederation as a last resort never thinking to break Pakistan ("ebarer songram, muktir songram, ebarer songram shadhinotar songram was a compromise sentence he uttered to please the radicals in his party and the student leaders on 7th March; that can not be taken seriously taking into the grave situation of that time ), which Yahya and cronies pretended to accept (Mujib became fool in trusting them). He was a prudent leader at that time and all prudent leaders have contigency plans in their laps. Mujib would have, if he was thinking otherwise.
From: syedhaque@hotmail.com
To: shahadathussaini@hotmail.com; bangladeshiamericans@googlegroups.com; bdpana@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: {North America Bangladeshi Community} March 25: A Day to Reminisce
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2014 08:36:26 -0500
AoA ,
Does it mean Mr. Mujib later betrayed Pakistani regime and declared secession? Is this the reason which drove army of Pakistan nuts?
Thanks
From: shahadathussaini@hotmail.com
To: nabdc@googlegroups.com; alochona@yahoogroups.com; sayedahaq@yahoo.com; mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com; chottala@yahoogroups.com; bangladesh-progressives@googlegroups.com; saokot_nccbl@yahoo.com; farzana.ahmed48@yahoo.com; neawamileague@gmail.com; baainews@yahoogroups.com; diagnose@yahoogroups.com
Subject: {North America Bangladeshi Community} March 25: A Day to Reminisce
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 15:05:28 -0500
Professor Aftab Ahmed, a former Chatra League leader and teacher of the Dhaka University said in a book that AL Secretary General Tajuddin Ahmed and student leader ASM Abdur Rob went to Mujib on the night of March 25 with written declaration of independence. Mujib declined to sign it. Nor did he agree to join them in leading the independence war. He decided to surrender to the Pakistanis instead. Joseph Farland, the US Ambassador in Islamabad, settled the terms. Mujib's family remained under military protection and lavish hospitality. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was a recipient of that hospitality. The US was to work with Pakistan to restore normalcy and ensure transfer of power to the elected representatives, keeping Mujib's hope alive.March 25: A Day to Reminisce:By Obaid Chowdhury, US
Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 March 2013 00:02 Wednesday, 27 March 2013 00:00
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March 25: A Day to Reminisce
By Obaid Chowdhury, USMarch 25, 1971 carries a special significance to Bangladesh. Following the Pakistan military's midnight crackdown on this day, the people of then East Pakistan had no alternative but to declare independent, starting a protracted liberation war. After 9 months and spilling a sea of blood, nearly 100,000 occupying forces surrendered in Dhaka on December 16, 1971. A flag of red circle on the green made itself known to the world.The Bengalis walked a long way to arrive at 1971. The journey started in early twentieth century when the largely Muslim population of eastern Bengal demanded from the British rulers a separate province for them. In keeping with the legitimacy of the request, as well as for administrative exigency, Viceroy Lord Curzon created East Bengal with Dhaka as capital in 1905. The Kolkata based Hindu Zamindar class, fearful of the loss of their estates in the new province, started an intensive agitation for its dissolution. Poet Rabindranath Tagore, also a zamindar, was in the forefront of that movement and composed his Sonar Bangla against the creation of East Bengal. In 1911, Curzon's successor annulled the partition of Bengal, assuring a university in Dhaka as concession to the beleaguered Muslims. Again it was Tagore who took the leading role in opposing the Dhaka University. He chaired a protest meeting in 1912 in Kolkata. It is an irony that we sing Tagore's Sonar Bangla as national anthem, the poem that was composed against East Bengal, today's Bangladesh. In paying homage to the British for the dissolution of East Bengal, Tagore composed Jana gono mono and elevated the British Crown to the status of God as Vigya Vidhata. India has it as its national anthem.At the All India Muslim League Convention at Lahore in 1940, Bangla's tiger A K Fazlul Haq roared for separate independent homelands for the Muslims. Later, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali and other non-Bengali Muslim leaders conspired to make one Muslim state, not multiple states. When Fazlul Haq expressed displeasure at the change, he was thrown out of the Muslim League. In 1946, Bengal Muslims overwhelmingly voted for a separate homeland for themselves. At the same time, H S Suhrawardi, Satyen Bose, Abul Hashem and other Bengalis leaders were campaigning for an independent Assam-Bengal. Jinnah was said to have no objection to it, but Jawaharlal Nehru and non-Bengali Hindu leaders would not let it happen. They could not afford to lose the resourceful northeastern part from India. Nehru's special relationship with the wife of the last British Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, came handy and Suhrawardi-Satyen Bose plan was dismissed. These were some of the glaring examples when the aspirations of Bengalis were nipped in the bud by others in connivance with the British.
East Pakistan was born out of the former East Bengal on August 14, 1947, sharing other half ---West Pakistan---over a thousand miles away across a perennially hostile India. Other than religion, the two parts of Pakistan had nothing in common. Jinnah became the first Governor General and Liquat was the first Prime Minister of the newly independent Pakistan. Majority Bengalis had no place at the top administrative and policy making body. Added to the insult was Jinnah's audacious declaration in Dhaka in 1948: "Urdu, only Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan", ignoring Bengali, the language of 56% people. Interestingly, Urdu was then spoken by only 30%, most of whom comprising the immigrants from India. Both Jinnah and Liaquat Ali were such immigrants. That's how the Pakistani leaders treated the Bengalis. And it was just the beginning, larger part of the play waiting in the wings.
For 23 years, West Pakistan kept becoming richer at the cost of its eastern half that provided the larger share in Pakistan's foreign exchange earnings. East Pakistan was doled out mere 40% of what the Punjabis and others received in budget allocation (Ref. Planning Commission of Pakistan: Bugdet 1950-70). Bengalis' share in the central administration was between 10-15%. In military, it was pitiable, a mere 5%. That's howSonar Bangla became shawshan by 1970. Military rulers from Eskandar Mirza to Ayub Khan to Yahya Khan looked at Bengalis as second class citizens.
In 1966, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, president of the Awami League, floated his 6 Points that prescribed complete autonomy for the provinces, leaving a weak center with only defense and foreign affairs but no control on finance. The junta and West Pakistani leaders suspected an Indian hand in the 6 Points, as they saw it a recipe to break Pakistan.Mystery shrouded the authorship of the 6 Points. A few Bengali civil servants claimed responsibility. Rumor had it that Altaf Gowhar, President Ayub's trusted and powerful Information Secretary masterminded the plan. Ayub wanted to thwart Mujib's ascendency as a political challenger by branding him as regional and separatist.
Sheikh Mujib never explained how his program would be implemented. But the stunt of 6-Point worked on the common people of East Pakistan. He became extremely popular. His oratory skill, dominating personality and larger than life stature made the Bengalis believe that he could bring an end to their long sufferings and deprivation from the Pakistanis.
Ayub made another blunder. He implicated Mujib in the Agartala Conspiracy Case in 1968, without credible evidence. The idea was to sensationalize a treason case to divert public attention in the face of a nationwide intense anti-Ayub movement. Again, the plan backfired. Maulana Bhasani, another towering and popular Bengali leader, came to Mujib's rescue. Even such pro-Pakistani leader as Nurul Amin extended support. Free Mujib and anti-ACC movement, spearheaded by the All Students' Action Committee, intensified. Ayub was forced to dismiss the case and release Mujib from custody in 1969. Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman became the undisputed leader in East Pakistan.
Yahya, who ousted Ayub in March 1969, seemed to have started with good intentions. He disbanded West Pakistan's One Unit, restoring the provinces of Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan and Northwest Frontier. It enabled East Pakistan to become the largest province. He introduced the adult franchise under which parliamentary seats were decided on population. East Pakistan had a majority of 164 seats to West's combined 136 in the central National Assembly. Yahya's another challenging task was to suspend military recruitment for two years in West Pakistan and increase induction of Bengalis into the defense forces. Selection of officer cadres continued in both wings, but quota for Bengalis kept increasing.However, after the Awami League's victory in December 1970 elections, the junta and hawkish Pakistani leaders felt alarmed. How would they pay the accumulated debt of 23 years to the East Pakistanis? And conspiracies began to hatch to prevent a Bengali at the helm of Pakistan. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan Peoples' Party played the most villainous role in the whole game. The thick-headed President Yahya ultimately became a pawn in the hands of a shrewd Bhutto. In mid-January, 1971, president and his top military brass gathered at Bhutto's Larkana Palace for a 'duck shooting' excursion. Behind the scene, Operation Searchlight aimed at annihilating the Bengalis was taking shape. While army chief General Abdul Hamid Khan and Bhutto's pal Lieutenant General Peerzada remained busy on the blueprints of the plan, the president and his host kept themselves happy with what they enjoyed the most.The outcome of December elections was extreme bipolar. Out of the 300 National Assembly seats, East Pakistan based Awami League won 162 but none in West Pakistan. Bhutto's PPP secured 82, mostly in Punjab and Sind but none in East Pakistan. It meant AL, thought became the majority party, but had no representation in West Pakistan. It became clear that the two wings not only moved on separate course, but on a collision path.
Yahya’s half-hearted efforts to negotiate with Mujib did not produce any result, as the later refused to budge on his 6 Points program. Bhutto refused to come to Dhaka to attend the inaugural session called on March 3. Additionally, he made a thuggish threat to 'break the legs' of those who would make the trip to Dhaka. Yahya postponed the March 3 NA session. Bengalis could not take it lightly. They saw it as another ploy to deny their legitimate rights in the center and took it as the last nail on the coffin of Pakistan. They wanted an immediate end to any association with Islamabad and pressurized Mujib for a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.On March 7, at the Race Course, 100,000 stick wielding public gathered to hear the UDI from Mujib. They did not get it. The leader put forward 4-Point demands to the junta instead. In concluding his 17-minutes speech, he said: Ebarer sangram amader muktir sangram. Ebarer sangram shawdhinotar sangram and left the podium without answering any questions, leaving the people totally confused. They could not make out the meaning between making demands and calling for shwadhinotar sangram. They were further baffled when Sheikh Mujib sat down in Dhaka from March 15 to 24 to negotiate with Yahya, Bhutto and other west Pakistani leaders to chart the future of Pakistan. He even compromised with his 6 Points to accommodate Islamabad (Ref: War and Secession: India, Pakistan and the Creation of Bangladesh).Simultaneously, military preparations were going in the cantonments. Planeloads of troops and armament kept landing in Dhaka daily. Mujib made no protest for the ominous military buildup. He even did not heed the warnings from Bengalis that a military crackdown was in the offing.What game Yahya and Mujib were playing?According to Syed Badrul Ahsan of the Daily Star, Yahya promised Mujib the premiership of Pakistan, to be done through a declaration on March 25. Dr. Kamal Hossain and Mujib waited the whole day for the declaration. It did not come. Something else happened.Yahya and his cohorts sneaked out of Dhaka in the afternoon on March 25. General Tikka Khan, the butcher, rolled out his killer machines at midnight in the name of Operation Searchlight. Seven thousand innocent people were gunned down in the first sweep, according to the International Herald Tribune of March 30, 1971. That was the game Yahya and Mujib played with the innocent Bengalis.
On March 27, the people heard a radio announcement from an unknown Major Ziaur Rahman in Chittagong, declaring Bangladesh an independent country and asking the people to fight the Pakistani occupation forces. For the first time, they got a direction and took up arms.Professor Aftab Ahmed, a former Chatra League leader and teacher of the Dhaka University said in a book that AL Secretary General Tajuddin Ahmed and student leader ASM Abdur Rob went to Mujib on the night of March 25 with written declaration of independence. Mujib declined to sign it. Nor did he agree to join them in leading the independence war. He decided to surrender to the Pakistanis instead. Joseph Farland, the US Ambassador in Islamabad, settled the terms. Mujib's family remained under military protection and lavish hospitality. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was a recipient of that hospitality. The US was to work with Pakistan to restore normalcy and ensure transfer of power to the elected representatives, keeping Mujib's hope alive.Today, there is a demand for 'hanging' the Razakars (collaborators) of 1971 from a section of the public. Who are greater collaborators? Who are bigger killers? Time may soon come when a dead leader and a living former prime minister will have to stand in the dock to answer these questions.
One may try to distort history, but history has its own course. The truth will ultimately prevail. And, history rarely forgets the criminals.Obaid ChowdhuryNew York, USAMarch 24, 2013
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