Term Paper

The Liberation War of Bangladesh “The Peoples War”

Submitted by:
Name: Mashukur Rahman
Id No: 2018-2-13-016
Sec: 08
Course: Gen226

Submitted to:
Name: Dr. Nurul Huda Abul Monshur (Prof.)

Department of History, University of Dhaka.

Last Date of Submission : 15 May, 2020

It was really matter of great luck that few of the people have seen the start of
Bangladesh liberation war in March 26, 1971. Passes through the very
difficult time where brutally punished and fight against their army with nine
and half months. Finally people watch the flag of the independent Bangladesh
to all over the country in December.

The story that begins the Liberation War of Bangladesh was started the day
after Pakistan and India was separated in 1947. Pakistan was shaped for the
Muslims and India had huge share of Hindus. Pakistan had two sections, East
and West, which were separated by around 1,000 miles. Both East and West
Pakistan stayed joined on account of their religion, Islam. West Pakistan had
97% Muslims and East Pakistanis had 85% Muslims. Nonetheless, there were
a few critical reasons that made the East Pakistani individuals battle for their
freedom. West Pakistan had four territories: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and
the North-West Frontier. The fifth region was East Pakistan. Having authority
over the regions, the West spent a larger number of assets than the East.
Somewhere in the range of 1948 and 1960, East Pakistan made 70% of the
entirety of Pakistan's fares, while it just got 25% of imported cash. In 1948,
East Pakistan had 11 texture factories while the West had nine. In 1971, the
quantity of texture processes in the West developed to 150 while the number
in the East went down to 26. About 2.6 billion dollars of assets were
additionally moved after some time from East Pakistan to West Pakistan.
Although, East Pakistan had the biggest population among all the territories, it
had substantially less political force than West Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, the pioneer of the Awami League in East Pakistan, unequivocally
requested increasingly financial and political forces. Also, there was
additionally the language issue that kept East Pakistan and West Pakistan in
an uncomfortable status. In 1948, Mohammad Ali Jinnah expressed in Dhaka
that Urdu was the official language for Pakistan. A large portion of the West
Pakistanis communicated in Punjabi and Sindhi, while East Pakistanis spoke
Bangla. East Pakistan thusly dissented; seven students were executed in a
furious dissent on February 21, 1952. This day has been remembered from
that point forward and is watched every year to underline the significance of
the Bengali language. An overwhelming cyclone hit East Pakistan in 1970. It
killed around 500,000 individuals and made a lot increasingly destitute. It
brought great shock and deep depression among the East Pakistani
individuals. In any case, the administration didn't give enough relief to ease
the incredibly hopeless conditions created by the cyclone. This caused huge
negative affection in East Pakistan for the Government. Later in 70’ the
Awami League, drove by Sheik Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in
the national election in 1971 and requested independence for East Pakistan.
The party won a 160 seats and a dominant part in the national get together.
This victory gave them a chance to frame a constitution. But Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto refused to join the national assembly. This initiated the war.
Bangabandhu gave a speech on March 7, 1971 when he urged the people to
turn all their homes into a fort of fight. He demanded transfer of power to the
elected representative. Later on 25 March the Pakistani occupied army going
for the operation searchlight to the people of East Pakistan. 26 March they
arrested Bangabandhu from his home, on that night Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
gave his declaration of independence to the people of Bangladesh.

Bangabandhu recorded the declaration of independence after the Pakistani

armed force got serious on the decisive night of March 25, 1971. After the
military crackdown, the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, who turned into the undisputed leader of the then Pakistan following
the huge victory of his party, Awami League, in the 1970 general decisions.
His message was:
“THIS MAY BE MY LAST MESSAGE, FROM TO-DAY BANGLADESH
IS INDEPENDENT. I CALL PON THE PEOPLE OF BANGLADESH
WHEREVER YOU MIGHT BE AND WITH WHATEVER YOU HAVE, TO
RESIST THE ARMY OF OCCUPATION TO THE LAST. YOUR RIGHT
MUST GO ON UNTIL THELAST SOLDIER OF THE PAKISTAN
OCCUPATION ARMY IS EXPELLED FROM THE SOIL OF
BANGLADESH. FINAL VICTORY IS OURS.”
This message of Bangabandhu was quickly spread all through the nation
through radio hardware under exceptional plans. He called upon all segments
of individuals, including Bengali military and regular citizen staff,
understudies, laborers and workers, to join the obstruction against the
occupation Pakistan armed force. Same night jawans and officials in
Chittagong, Comilla and Jessore cantonments set up protection against the
Pakistan armed force after received this message. The Pakistan armed force
captured Bangabandhu from his Dhanmondi home at 1:10 A.m. and then,
whisked him away to Dhaka cantonment. Bangabandhu’s declaration was
broadcast by Chittagong Radio station. That day, General Yahya Khan, in a
broadcast restricted the Awami League and called Bangabandhu a traitor.
After having the news from Bangabandhu, on 10 April a government was
framed consisting of the top positioning leaders of Awami League. The vow
taking ceremony of the administration took place on 17 April at
Baidyanathtaia in the district of Meherpur. The formation for this Government
has created after a quite story. Awami League General Secretary Tajuddin
Ahmed and Barrister Amirul Islam Chowdhury attempted a ton to get the
assistance of the Indian Government in the Liberation War of Bangladesh.
They crossed the border on 1 April 1971 and arrived at Delhi. After the
meeting with Mrs. Gandhi, they made a decision and framed a Government of
Bangladesh announcing himself as Prime Minister and Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman as the President. Indian Government acknowledged the bureau
framed by Tajuddin Ahmed and he got the green sign of cooperation and help
for the War of Liberation of Bangladesh from the Government of India. And
spread the news throw out the radio with help from India. With this message
the Government of Bangladesh appeared in public. This Govt. had
additionally been known as Mujibnagar Government in a state of banishment,
as the exercises of the administration had been led from outside of the
Bangladesh. On 17 April 1971, the ceremony was held in Baidyanathtaia
which is later known as Mujibnajar. In the ceremony where is attended by
cabinet members, some village people, journalist, some freedom fighter also.
Some major position of this Government was: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
(President), Syed Nazrul Islam (Vice president ; Acting President), Tajuddin
Ahmed (Prime Minister).

Our magnificent Liberation War of 1971 was a people's war. Since individuals
from varying backgrounds, workers to woodworkers to potters to workers to
students to instructors to specialists to designers and every single other expert
and individuals from all position, doctrine and religion, entire heatedly took
an interest in this war for the fulfillment of Bangladesh. Our founding father
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his party Awami League earned
the help of by far most of our populace and won an landslide victory based on
their six point contract in the Pakistan National Parliamentary Elections in
1970. But when the opposition party member the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said that
he didn’t want to join the national assembly people’s of Bangladesh goes mad
about the Pakistan Government. Bengalis called hortal and try to protest
against the Government call. On 7th March Bangabanghu called an event on
Sohrawardi Uddan. People from all over the country came to the event to
know about the decision that what Bangabandhu have made. And his
historical 7th March speech made this point very clear that people of East
Pakistan will fight and his speech made them very motivate to against the
Pakistan occupation army. Besides that the Pakistani military junta was
bringing more troops to Bangladesh and at the same time also killing the
innocent people in Bangladesh. Pakistan occupation army order to launch
their plan ‘operation searchlight’ at 25 March. Same night they arrested
Bangabandhu from his home and before that he declares his declaration of
independence speech to the people. After received message from
Bangabandhu people goes for the all out attack against the Pakistani army.
That’s how the fight against the occupation army begins.

Many people across the country and the world combine to join the Liberation
War to let us victory at the end. Specially the role of women, students,
intellectual, foreign people, Indian government, journalists etc. Students and
Women played one of the biggest roles in the war after the freedom fighter.
Students of school, colleges, universities played a biggest part in the war.
Student’s league was created after the separation of the India and Pakistan.
They also has a huge movement behind the creation of the liberation force of
Bengalis. We see that dominant part portion of the freedom fighters were
students and for these countless martyrs in our Liberation War were likewise
understudies. On the off chance that we break down the military structure and
association of our freedom war, at that point we can see that in the large
portion of the cases the initiative of the Muktbahini was in the hand of those
students. We also found that the Sector Commanders, Platoon Commanders
and Company Commanders were from the students in the vast majority of the
cases. The students also had additionally a different job in our freedom war.
Some of them worked in the refugee camps, others worked in the adolescent
camps as volunteers. A few students were occupied with social activities to
motivate the freedom fighters. Bengali women also indeed made huge
contribution. They deliver supply to the freedom fighter, they also shelter
them some times and some of them also participate in wars with arms. Some
of the medical students are participate in war as a helping hand to give service
to the injurious fighters. They worked in hospital as nurse to the people. Some
of them also worked in Shwadhin Bangla Betar kendra to encourage people.
Indian Government helped us with various source to win the war against the
army. They helped us with arms, they let Mukti Bhahini to train in their
border, they helped us with the tactical plan for the war, and for the month
September they generally participate with us in the war to win against the
Pakistan. They literally helped us in the war directly and indirectly throughout
the nine months. The role of every people made us to find the victory.

The perspective on Bangladesh as an autonomous and democratic country

turned out to be very obvious from early December. In December, the
freedom fighters and the Indian Army had just been in charge of huge area of
Bangladesh. With the help from Indian Government and our freedom fighters
sacrifice we are in comfortable position in the war to have the great victory.
The independence of Bangladesh not just came along with the freedom
fighter, it’s about the every people who participate with everything for the
victory. By December 13, nearly the entire Bangladesh, aside from the capital
Dhaka, got freed from the Pakistan army. At the same time, Akashvani India's
national radio had been communicating over and over the order of the Indian
Chief of the Army Staff Sam Manekshaw for about seven days. The order
asked the Pakistani armed force officers and different authorities to give up to
the joint command of the Bangladesh Armed Forces/Liberation Forces and the
Indian Army. On December sixteenth, 1971, Dhaka tumbled to the Mitro
Bahini, the elite forces of the Mukti Bahini and the Indian armed force. An
"Instrument of Surrender" was marked by the defeated Pakistani General
Niazi and by the Indian leader General Aurora at 16:31 Indian Standard Time.
From 1947 to 1971 West Pakistan gives us such hard time that we have ever
faced before. Some many of the innocents died for their dictatorial behavior.
For their sacrifice we found a symbolized and independent nation. This event
is historical and unforgettable to every human being in the world.