The Emergence Process of Bangladesh

1947

Pakistan was born in bloodshed and came into existence on August 15, 1947, confronted by seemingly insurmountable problems.Mohammad Ali Jinnah becomes the Governor General of the new country, including two provinces separated by thousand miles of Indian Territory. After partition, Muslim banking shifted from Bombay to Karachi, Pakistan's first capital. Much of the investment in East Pakistan came from West Pakistani banks.A key resolution at a national education summit in Karachi had been adopted that ‘Urdu’ would be the sole state language of Pakistan and the Government would ensure its exclusive use in the media andin schools.

1948

On March 21, Jinnah visited East Pakistan on only one occasion after independence, shortly before his death in 1948. He announced in Dhaka that "Urdu and only Urdu will remain as the state language of Pakistan." Jinnah's views were not accepted by most East Pakistanis. In fact the students of Dhaka University instantly protested this declaration in front of him. But perhaps in tribute to the founder of Pakistan, serious resistance on this issue did not break out until after his death.

1952

At nine o'clock on the morning of 21 February 1952, students began gathering on the premises of the University of Dhaka in defiance of section 144 of the penal code . The university vice-chancellor and other officials were present as armed police surrounded the campus. By a quarter past eleven, students gathered at the university gate and attempted to break the police line. Police fired tear gas shells towards the gate to warn the students. A section of students ran into Dhaka medical college while others rallied towards the university premises cordoned by the police. The vice-chancellor asked police to stop firing and ordered the students to leave the area. However, the police arrested several students for violating Section 144 as they attempted to leave. But still everyone kept advancing towards the Assembly Hall. The police opened fire on the advancing masses. Salam, Rafiq, Barkat, Jabbar and many others scrifies their lives.

1954

On March, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Sher-e-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Huq and Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan lead the Jukto (United) Front to bag a landslide victory in elections to the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly through routing the ruling Muslim League. Fazlul Huq becomes the Chief Minister. The Huq Cabinet is dismissed and Section 92 is imposed in East Pakistan by Governor General Iskandar Mirza in East Pakistan in May.

1958

On October 7, leading politicians are put into jail, Parliament is dissolved, Field Marshal Ayub Khan captured the power, sent President Iskander Mirza in exileand and the constitution is abrogated, and political parties are banned. A curtain of martial law falls all over East Pakistan. On October 27, General Ayub Khan ousts Iskandar Mirza, sends him to exile, takes over as President in addition to his position as Chief Martial Law Administrator.

1962

On September 17, students took to street vehemently opposing inter-colonial Pakistani government’s unequal and exclusionary national education policy, a policy that was built on the assumption that education for all is a utopian idea. It encouraged commercialisation of public education. Then came the morning of September 17. Thousands of students took to the streets protesting at the discriminatory education policy of Ayub Khan’s military regime. In demand of equal access to education, students took bullets. At least three people including a student were killed. Since then September 17 is observed as the Education Day by progressive student organisations.

1966

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was elected the party President. The Awami League under the leadership of Sheikh Mujib, formulated the Six Points demand in front of the people. The Awami League demanded that changes would be made in regard to East Pakistan. These changes were embodied in Mujib's Six Points Plan, which he presented at a meeting of opposition parties in Lahore. In support of the Six-Points, the people of East Pakistan enforce an all out strike across the province. President Ayub Khan orders Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to step down from the government following his going on leave in July.

1968

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 34 other Bengalis are charged for conspiring to separate East Pakistan from the rest of the country, known as the "Agartala Conspiracy Case". The trial starts on 19 June.

1969

Democratic Action committee turns into a unified platform of all opposition parties, as the anti- Ayub protest intensified in the first two months. Imprisoned Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is invited to a round table conference organized by the President, which Mujib refuses. Protest against Agartala conspiracy case intensifies further while people swell in numbers on the streets of East Pakistan for the unconditional release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all other accused. The Army killed Sergeant Zahurul Haq, one of the 35 accused in the Agartala Conspiracy Case, while he was in the military custody at the Dhaka Cantonment. On February 22, In the face of fierce protest, Pakistan government dismissed the Agartala case and unconditionally set all the accused free. On February 23, at a meeting of one million people, Mujib is publicly acclaimed as Bangabandhu (Friend of Bengal). In his speech on the occasion, Bangabandhu pledges his total support to the 11-point demand of the students.

1970

On January 1, A much-awaited legal framework order issued and political activities get resumed. The first-ever general elections are to be held in October, which is delayed till December due to devastating floods.
On December 7, the Awami League, the largest East Pakistani political party, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, wona landslide victory in the national elections. The party won 167 out of the 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan,and thus a majority of the 313 seats in the National Assembly. This gave the Awami League theconstitutional right to form a Government.
The nearest contender was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of PPP, with a total of 81 seats in the National Assembly, and with a two-thirds majority from Sind.

1971 March

GOP announced the postponement of the session of the National Assembly, which wouldbe seated on 3rd March. After that announcement, hundreds of thousands of the enraged people of EastPakistan took the street. Sheikh Mujib told in a press conference that it was not democracy but dictatorship. He called general strikes on 2nd March in Dhaka and all over the country on 3rd March. On March 6, Admiral S.M.Ahsan, the Governor, Lt. General Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, and Zonal Martial Law Administrator quit. Fearing a further escalation of the movement, President Yahya Khan calls the National Assembly to session in Dhaka on 25 March. On March 7, "The struggle this time is the struggle for liberation. The struggle this time is for independence," Bangabandhu tells a million-strong public rally in Dhaka. In a massive rally at Race Course Maidan in Dhaka, Sheikh Mujib announced his decisionto participate in the National Assembly session, but he raised his 4-point demands to fulfill before the session.On March 25, At the dead of the night, Pakistani army launches its offensive "Operation Searchlight" on the unarmed people in East Pakistan. Systemic genocide of Bengalis begin in Dhaka.On March 26, Bangabandhu declares the independence of Bangladesh. Pakistani Army arrests Bangabandhu and takes him to West Pakistan after confinement in Dhaka Cantonment. On March 27, From Kalurghat radio station, on behalf of Bangabandhu independence is publicly announced nationwide.

1971 April

At Meherpur, now widely known as Mujibnagar, Bangladesh Provisional Government comes into being. Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam, Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed, and ministers including A.H.M Quamruzzaman, M. Mansur Ali, and Khondokar Moshtaque Ahmed are sworn in. Col. Ataul Gani Osmani is appointed Chief of the liberation forces.

1971 August

On August 11, A military court in Pakistan starts secret trial of Bangabadhu, framing charges of waging war against the country. In the latter part of the year, he will be sentenced to death.

1971 December

On December 3, Pakistan and India locked in a war. A joint military command between Bangladesh and Indian forces is set up. The Pakistani military has dealt a heavy blow on all fronts. Martyred Intellectuals Day is observed on 14 December in Bangladesh to commemorate those intellectuals who were killed by Pakistani forces and their collaborators during the 1971 Liberation War, particularly on 25 March and 14 December 1971. The killings were undertaken with the goal of annihilating the intellectual class of what was then East Pakistan. On December 16, After a nine-month battle claiming the lives of 3 million Bengali people, finally the 'Victory Day' arrives. The Race Course in Dhaka witnesses the golden moment when 93,000 Pakistani troops led by Lt. Gen. A.A.K Niazi signs the instruments of surrender.

1972

On January, The architect of the independence of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu is released from the confinement in the early days of January 1972. Days after, the Father of the Nation, lands in an independent, liberated and sovereign Bangladesh. Upon his arrival, Bangabandhu embarks on a series of initiatives to turn the war torn Bangladesh into a Golden Bengal.