The political journey of the daughter of Shiekh Mujib and the longest-serving Bangladeshi PM – Sheikh Hasina, took a sharp turn when she landed in India – the country that actively participated in the bifurcation of Pakistan in 1971; after she was forced to resign after days of violent student protests across the country.
It was in Agartala – a city in the state of Tripura, India where her father had colluded with the Indian officials to use brute force in dissecting Pakistan into two. The Agartala conspiracy case would go down in history as a calamitous moment in the struggle for the bloodied Bengali independence from the newly found Muslim state in South Asia – which had just thrown off the yoke of British raj.
The 16th of December 1971 is a date that will live in infamy in our national history. Although the motive to create an independent Bengal state was there from the beginning, the immediate impetus was drawn from the cases instituted on Awami League leaders in the wake of the Agartala conspiracy.
It is now clear, how AL leader and the now-former Premier of Bangladesh, Hasina Wajid, unleashed party loyalists-cum-militants to attack protesting students. The same tactic was used in the 1970s when Awami League goons would go after non-Bengalis. There was killing, and looting of Biharis, a pejorative term for non-Bengalis, by the armed goons of the Awami League. Their properties and homes were burnt down to ashes, they had nowhere to go as their shelters were demolished by the mobs who were chasing them, merely for being non-Bengalis.
The 16th of December 1971 is a date that will live in infamy in our national history.
As per credible reports, the number of Biharis and West Pakistanis killed by Awami League militants exceeded 100,000. The violence didn’t stop there as their houses and shops were looted. Their brutality knew no bounds when their women were taken away and raped and later dumped with mutilated bodies. In his book “Blood and Tears”, Qutubuddin Aziz shares the harrowing stories of over 150 eyewitnesses who survived the brutal attacks on Biharis and other non-Bengalis. Their accounts reveal the shocking scale of violence that unfolded across 55 towns where innocent lives were mercilessly cut short.
Lawrence Lifschultz, a senior South Asia correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, uncovered a chilling account of brutality during the conflict. According to his report, Abdul Kader Siddiqui, a leader of the Mukti Bahini, was responsible for the gruesome deaths of non-Bengalis, including instances where he used a bayonet to end lives. What’s even more disturbing is that Siddiqui allegedly invited foreign film crews to document the atrocities. In the words of Akhtar Mukul, a veteran Bengali Journalist, the scale of atrocities committed in Santahar alone left the town inaccessible due to the overwhelming stench of dead bodies, where, “medieval-style killings” took place over three days, taking the lives of over 1000 men, women and children.
Speaking of the conspiracy hatched in Agartala, the then deputy Speaker Shawkat Ali revealed, later in 2011, in parliament that the charges brought against Mujib were not unfounded. “We formed a Sangram Parishad led by Bangabandhu to free East Pakistan through armed protest,” he admitted. The fact of the armed resurrection against the state is corroborated further by the activities of Manik Chowdhury. His clandestine activities during the 1960s significantly contributed to Bangladesh’s liberation movement. Alongside MA Aziz and Bangabandhu, he established the “New Agency”, a covert operation center in Khatunganj’s Asadganj area. This front organization funded the Awami League’s work and supported the armed movement, with Manik procuring funds through clandestine means -facilitating resource flow, including arms and ammunition.
Shaukat Ali, a retired Colonel and accused number 26 in the case, shared his account of events in an interview in 2007. He recalled, “Bangabandhu communicated with India through his sources. He visited Agartala and Lahore through India, and later, two people from our organization went to Agartala to discuss arms procurement with Indian officials.” Furthermore, Abul Hassan, a key witness in the case, narrated that he had accompanied Mujib to India two to three times between 1962 and 1964. Where he spoke to some Indian officials, but he (Hassan) didn’t know about the subject of their discussion.
Asking the enemy state for help is a high treason of which Mujib was rightly accused as he sought help from Indians on various occasions. It is clear that the conspiracy to break Pakistan didn’t begin here; it goes back to 1956 when Mujib met with a Bengali writer from India, Manoj Basu, who later shared his encounter with Sheikh Mujib.
According to his statement, Mujib had confided in him, “I will liberate East Pakistan. It’s my dream. I want political help from you.” In essence, the so-called Bangabandhu was holding a begging bowl seeking help from enemies and anarchists alike to actuate the separation of Bengal from West Pakistan.
In the words of Sharmila Bose, the rebellion in East Pakistan, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was very different from Gandhi’s peaceful protests in India. In short, while Mujib sometimes spoke of peaceful methods, in reality, the movement was armed and militant. People at the time remember big rallies in Dhaka where crowds carried sticks and rods. There were also marches where people had weapons, showing they were ready to fight. This movement was not afraid to use force to achieve its goals. The people of East Pakistan were determined and were willing to take bold action to make it happen.
The writer is an independent researcher and can be reached at abdulniner09@gmail.com