Twelve years in jail and ten years under close surveillance, Pakistan, to Sheikh Mujib, indeed proved to be more a prison than a free homeland. The people gave him the absolute mandate in favour of his six-point doctrine. Now it was his turn to implement it. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was so serious about the six-point that on 3 January , he held a solemn ceremony at Ramna Race Course with all the East Pakistan representatives and took an oath never to deviate from the six-point idea when framing the constitution for Pakistan.
Bangabandhu's most uncompromising stand on the six-point programme led ZA Bhutto and Yahya's military junta to take a stringent view. Instead of allowing him to form the government, the junta resolved to undo the results of the elections. The announcement triggered off the death-knell of Pakistan. Bangabandhu called an all-out non-cooperation movement in East Pakistan.
The whole province supported the non-cooperation movement. During the course of non-cooperation March the entire civil authorities in East Pakistan came under the control and directives of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, himself becoming the de facto head of government of the province.
During this time, on 7 March Mujib made a historic address at a mammoth gathering at the Race Course which marked a turning point in the history of the Bengali nation. In his address Mujib made specific charges against the Martial Law authorities which failed to transfer power to the elected representatives. At the end of his speech, he made a clarion call, saying: "Build forts in each homestead. You must resist the Pakistani enemy with whatever you have in hand..
Remember, we have given a lot of blood, a lot more blood we shall give if need be, but we shall liberate the people of this country, Insha Allah [ie, if God blessed]..
The struggle this time is the struggle for our emancipation; the struggle this time is the struggle for independence. The dialogue began on the following day and continued intermittently down to 25 March morning. During the period, non-cooperation and hartals continued relentlessly. Students and leaders of various political parties had been declaring independence from March 2 and the spree continued down to 25 March.
At mid-night of 25 March , the Pakistan army launched its brutal crackdown in Dhaka. Sheikh Mujib was arrested and kept confined at Dhaka Cantonment until he was lifted to West Pakistan for facing trial for sedition and inciting insurrection. Although during the War of Liberation begun in the wake of the 25 March army crackdown Bangabandhu had been a prisoner in the hands of Pakistan, he was made, in absentia, the President of the provisional government, called the Mujibnagar Government , formed on 10 April by the people's representatives to head the Liberation War.
He was also made the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Throughout the period of the War of Liberation, Sheikh Mujib's charisma worked as the source of national unity and strength.
Bangabandhu was re-elected General Secretary of the party. On 3 February, Awami League during a meeting with the chief Minister demanded that the subject of provincial autonomy be included in the draft constitution.
On September an anti famine procession was brought out under the leadership of Bangabandhu defying Section At least three persons were killed when police opened fire on the procession at Chawkbazar area. On 30 May Bangabandhu resigned from the cabinet to strengthen the organization by working full time. On 7 August he went to official tour to China and the Soviet Union. On 7 October Pakistan President and the military dictator General Ayub Khan imposed martial law and banned political activities.
Bangabandhu was arrested on 11 October. He was released from prison after a long 14 months but he was arrested at the jail gate. Bangabandhu was released from jail after the High Court declared his detention unlawful. Bangabandhu was arrested under the Public Security Act on 6 February. He was freed on 18 June following of four years long martial law on 2 June. He spent the entire month of October traveling across the Bengal along with Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy to build up public support for the Front.
Bangabandhu went to London for consultations with Suhrawardy who was there for medical treatment. On 5 December Suhrawardy died in Beirut.
Bangabandhu led a committee to defuse communal riots. Bangabandhu was arrested 14 days before the presidential election. The government charged Sheikh Mujib with sedition and for making objectionable statements. He was sentence to a one year imprisonment.
He was later released by the order of the High Court. On February, a national conference of the opposition parties held in Lahore. Bangabandhu placed his historic 6-Pionts programme before the select committee of the conference. On 1 March, Bangabandhu was elected the president of the Awami League. Following his election he launched a campaign to obtained enthusiastic support for the 6-Points demand.
He was arrested eight times in the first quarter of the year. On 8 May he was arrested after his speech at a rally of jute mill workers at Narayanganj. A countrywide hartal was observed on 7 June to press the demand to release Bangabandhu. While serving long term jail sentences, the Pakistani military dictator brought charges of high treason against Sheikh Mujib. They accused Sheikh Mujib of conspiring with 34 Bengali Senior Civil and military officials to overthrow the government.
The trial started on 19 June inside Dhaaka Cantonment amidst tight security under a special tribunal and the case became famous as Agartala Conspiracy Case. The Central Students Action Council was formed on 5 January to press for the acceptance of the points which included the 6-Points of Bangabandhu, The protest against the so-called Agartala conspiracy case slowly gained momentum and the huge mass upsurge of February brought the downfall of Gen Ayub Khan and withdrawal of Agartala Conspiracy Case as well as the release of Sheikh Mujib and other co-accused.
On 25 March Ayub Khan took over and imposed martial law. On 25 October, Bangabandhu went to London on a three week organizational tour. In the death anniversary of Suhrawardy, Bangabandhu announced that the name of the independent East Pakistan would be Bangladesh.
The opportunity came after the Indo-Pakistan war in which East Pakistan, with its Bengali majority, was practically left defenseless by the central government. In November Mujib worked out a six-point program for enabling his party to secure political and economic justice in a federal system. The scheme involved setting up a federal system in which the power of the central government would be dramatically curtailed; only foreign affairs and defense were to be left as central subjects.
The provinces were to have jurisdiction over currencies and fiscal policy, with the stipulation that the federal government was to be provided with requisite revenues for meeting only the requirements of defense and foreign affairs.
Mujib's six-point program also demanded that a constitutional provision was to be made providing that separate accounts for foreign exchange earnings and foreign trade could be maintained under the provincial governments. A last point emphasized that a separate military for East Pakistan was to be raised and maintained in order to contribute to national security.
Mujib's program was rejected by the leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement composed of the leaders of the combined opposition party who had unsuccessfully challenged Ayub in the election of at an all-party meeting in Lahore in February Undiscouraged, Mujib quickly decided to start a mass movement based on his program. In he was once more arrested, and in the central government brought a charge of treason against him for his alleged conspiracy with Indian leaders to make East Pakistan secede from Pakistan.
Pressured by a nationwide mass movement, the Ayub regime withdrew the conspiracy charge against him and others and Mujib was set free unconditionally on March 2, Under the Legal Framework Order of Yahya Khan, who took over power from Ayub in , the dates for national and provincial elections were set for December 5 and 17, , respectively.
Perhaps the November cyclone which claimed half a million lives and rendered 3 million homeless and the apparent lack of concern for the victims by the Yahya junta changed the course of Pakistan's political history. Mujib's Awami League won a landslide victory— seats out of a possible —thereby securing an absolute majority in the Assembly.
This was unacceptable to West Pakistan's military and political elites. As a result, the Assembly was indefinitely postponed by President Khan on March 1, , two days before the first session was to convene. This infuriated the Bengalis, and a spontaneous mass movement against the military erupted. Mujib tried to turn the rising public anger into a non-violent, civil disobedience movement. During the three week long movement Mujib ruled East Pakistan as the de facto head of government.
A last effort to negotiate a peaceful settlement failed on March On midnight of March 25, , the military crackdown on the Bengali autonomy movement began, resulting in the arrest of Mujib, the round-up of suspected nationalists, and a general disarming of the Bengali police and Bengali members of Pakistan's armed forces. The crackdown, accompanied by senseless killing of Bengali police, soldiers, and civilians, served to harden Bengali resolve to fight the Pakistan military to the last.
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