New war for Integrity & Sovereignty

26 MARCH 2012 ISSN No. 2222-968-7 REGD. DA no. 327 NEWS&VIEWS + KINGSHUK = V.36/N0.7/2012 NEWS&VIEWS + KINGSHUK=V.36/N0.8/2012 1

”Our struggle is for our freedom. Our struggle is for our independence."

Editor’ Note

ethically and conceptually dead men for develop- ment actions. We have also been a fact for the change in the attitude of this South Asian regional democracy & current language players. This ges- ture by the people has gone away by activate the India's and Pakistan's concerns. So far, neither the two countries now can gain anything fruitful from their intelligence engagements. Now, the Bangla- desh opening up its economic liberalization by transit or viable corridor, Power Trading, regional water sharing on trust and human value, ICT re- forms for mutual lively benefits, suspension of border trade (Legal Smuggling), bypassing the past political gravity, opening new dialogs and cavity, empowerment of local governments, win- win or friendly attitude in lateral negotiation re- gional forums, attitude as friends but not master, Time zone will televise the facts of creditors of the managing the conflicts, accept the inseparable im- Independence declaration and obviously Late positions (Water sharing), avoid the past favors and Late and savors, and long term motivational reunifica- both are nationalist and patriot, not the almighty. tion on the basis of Humanity, Trust and Moder- We salute to our both the great leaders to make nity with friendly charismatic behaviors.

united focus to Democracy. For the national cause Reality is, 26 March 1971 is considered the official we need good live manager, who can lead and Independence Day of , and the name manage the contradictions and political conflicts, Bangladesh was in effect henceforth forever. And i.e. the National cause. We do not care auditors to these are our national ethical code of life & con- measure the dead debts and the fake dialogues; ducts, trailing and we need action for developments which may not longing for the boost by foreign ghost power brokerage’s opera- best of living. tives. The display posters, now they are virtually,

Bureau Head office: BANGLADESH Bureau offices: ITALY, EU & SWITZERLAND Bureau offices: UK, USA & CANADA 57 D.O.H.S. (OLD) 1206 Bangladesh 6900 Lugano, Switzerland 380 Brunswick Avenue, Fl-2nd Trenton, NJ 08618, USA Base TEL: +8802 8715838 M: 88 01821100313 E: [email protected], [email protected] E: [email protected], [email protected] E: [email protected], [email protected] Rukunuddin Ahmed > CEO & Editor-in-Chief Editor & Publisher< Ahmed, Switzerland Daisy Ahmed >Managing Editor Editor-in-Chief < Rukunuddin Ahmed, Italy USA Bureau Chief < Mujibuddin Ahmed, USA Fatima Ahmed Jayantee > Syndicate Editor Feature Editor < Faizun Nahar Shanchita, Italy Publisher< Rukunuddin Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed > News Editor Art & Design Director < Shafiqul Kabir Chandan, Milan UK Bureau < Sayed Chowdhury, Media Mohal Ltd. Mariam Ahmed > Business Reporter English Version Editor < Sanowar Hossain Milon

ISSNNEWS&VIEWS No. 2222+ KINGSHUK=V.36/N0.8/2012-968-7 REGD. DA no. 327 NEWS&VIEWS + KINGSHUK V.36/N0.8/2012 26 MARCH 2012 2 Bangladesh Liberation War

The Bangladesh Liberation Army") and Liberation War used guerrilla warfare was an armed tactics to fight against conflict pitting East Pakistan the (Now Bangladesh) and India army. On 16 Decem- against West Pakistan, re- ber 1971, the allied sulted in the secession of East forces of the Indian Pakistan, which became the army and the Mukti independent nation: Bangla- Bahini defeated the desh. West Pakistani forces The war broke out on 26 deployed in the East. The re- cally and culturally separate March 1971 as army units di- sulting surrender was the larg- areas to the east and the west rected by West Pakistan est in number of prisoners of of India. The western zone launched a military operation war since World War II. was popularly (and for a pe- in East Pakistan against Ben- riod of time, also officially) gali civilians, students, intelli- Background termed West Pakistan and the gentsia, and armed personnel In August eastern zone (modern-day who were demanding separa- 1947, the Bangladesh) was initially tion of the East from West Partition of termed East Bengal and later, Pakistan. The movement con- British India gave birth to two East Pakistan. Although the flicted on the basis of BANGLA new states; a secular state population of the two zones language. Bengali military, pa- named India and an Islamic was close to equal, political ramilitary, and civilians formed state named Pakistan. Paki- power was concentrated in the (Bengali: stan comprised two geographi- West Pakistan and it was NEWS&VIEWS + KINGSHUK=V.36/N0.8/2012 3 Genealogically Bengali belongs to the group of Eastern Indo-Aryan Languages,- here marked in yellow widely perceived that East Pakistan was being exploited economically, leading to many grievances. Administration of two discontinuous territories was also seen as a challenge. On 25 March 1971, rising po- litical discontent and cultural nationalism in East Pakistan was met by brutal suppressive force from the ruling elite of the West Pakistan establish- ment in what came to be termed . The violent crackdown by West Pakistan forces led to Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declaring East Paki- stan's independence as the state of Bangladesh on 26 March 1971. Pakistani Presi- dent Agha Mohammed Yahya ordered the Pakistani military to restore the Pakistani gov- ernment's authority, beginning the civil war. The war led to a sea of refugees (estimated at the time to be about 10 mil- lion) flooding into the eastern provinces of India. Facing a mounting humanitarian and economic crisis, India started actively aiding and organizing the Bangla- deshi resis- tance army known as the Mukti Bahini.

Language Controversy In 1948, Mohammad Ali Jin- nah, Pakistan's first Governor- General, declared in Dhaka (then usually spelled Dacca in English) that "Urdu, and only Urdu" would be the common language for all of Pakistan. This proved highly controver- sial, since Urdu was a lan- guage that was only spoken in the West by Muhajirs and in the East by Biharis, although 4 NEWS&VIEWS + KINGSHUK=V.36/N0.8/2012 the Urdu language had been prime minister) delivered a promoted as the lingua franca speech at the Racecourse of Indian Muslims by political Ground (now called the and religious leaders such as Suhrawardy Udyan). In this Sir Khwaja Salimullah, Sir speech he mentioned a further Syed Ahmed Khan, Nawab four-point condition to con- Viqar-ul-Mulk and Maulvi Ab- sider the National Assembly dul Haq. The language was Meeting on 25 March: he considered a vital element of urged "his people" the Islamic culture for Indian to turn every Muslims; Hindi and the Deva- house into a fort nagari script were seen as fun- of resistance. He damentals of Hindu culture. closed his speech The majority groups in West saying, "Our Pakistan spoke Punjabi, while struggle is for the Bengali language was spo- our freedom. ken by the vast majority of Our struggle is East Pakistanis. The language for our inde- controversy eventually pendence." This Today reached a point where East speech is consid- Bangla- Pakistan revolted while the ered the main desh is a other part of Pakistan re- event that in- sovereign mained calm even though spired the nation and inde- pendent country. On Thursday night, West Pakistani armed forces suddenly at- tacked the police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR head- quarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka. Many innocent and unarmed have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangla- desh. Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other, are go- ing on. The Bengalis are fight- ing the enemy with great courage for an independent Punjabi was spoken by the to fight for its independence. Bangladesh. May Allah aid us majority groups of West Paki- in our fight for freedom. Joy stan. Several students and ci- Declaration of independence Bangla. vilians lost their lives in a po- The violence unleashed by the lice crackdown on 21 February Pakistani forces on 25 March Sheikh Mujib also called upon 1952. The day is revered in 1971, proved the last straw to the people to resist the occu- Bangladesh and in West Ben- the efforts to negotiate a set- pation forces through a radio gal as the Language Martyrs' tlement. Following these out- message. Mujib was arrested Day. rages, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the night of 25–26 March signed an official declaration 1971 at about 1:30 am (as per On 7 March 1971, Sheikh Mu- that read: Radio Pakistan's news on 29 jibur Rahman (soon to be the March 1971). NEWS&VIEWS + KINGSHUK=V.36/N0.8/2012 5 A telegram containing the text of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's declaration reached some stu- dents in . The mes- sage was translated to Bengali by Dr. Manjula Anwar. The students failed to secure per- mission from higher authori- ties to broadcast the message from the nearby Agrabad Sta- tion of Radio Pakistan. They

sage was picked up by a Japanese ship in Bay of Bengal. It was then re- transmitted by Ra- dio Australia and later by the British Broadcasting Corpo- crossed Kalurghat Bridge into ration. an area controlled by an East This is Shadhin Bangla Betar M A Hannan, an Awami Bengal Regiment under Major Kendro. I, Major Ziaur Rah- League leader from Chit- Ziaur Rahman. Bengali sol- man, at the direction of Ban- tagong, is said to have made diers guarded the station as gobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rah- the first announcement of the engineers prepared for trans- man, hereby declare that the declaration of independence mission. At 19:45 hrs on 27 independent People's Republic over the radio on 26 March March 1971, Major Ziaur Rah- of Bangladesh has been estab- 1971. There is controversy man broadcast the announce- lished. At his direction, I have now as to when Major Zia ment of the declaration of in- taken command as the tempo- gave his speech. BNP sources dependence on behalf of rary Head of the Republic. In maintain that it was 26 March, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On the name of Sheikh Mujibur and there was no message re- 28 March Major Ziaur Rahman Rahman, I call upon all Ben- garding declaration of inde- made another announcement, galis to rise against the attack pendence from Mujibur Rah- which was as follows: by the West Pakistani Army. man. Pakistani sources, like We shall fight to Siddiq Salik in Witness to Sur- the last to free render had written that he our Motherland. heard about Mujibor Rahman's By the grace of message on the Radio while Allah, victory is Operation Searchlight was go- ours. . ing on, and Maj. Gen. Hakeem A. Qureshi in his book ―The The Kalurghat 1971 Indo-Pak War: A Sol- Radio Station's dier's Narrative‖, gives the transmission ca- date of Zia's speech as 27 pability was lim- March 1971. ited. The mes- 6 NEWS&VIEWS + KINGSHUK=V.36/N0.8/2012 By Y A Shanchoy

script. With nearly 300 million total square kilometers) is in India, the speakers, Bengali is one of the most remaining 62 percent (144,000 spoken languages ranking sixth in square kilometers) constituting the the world. nation of Bangladesh. Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan The Bengali people speak the Bengali languages, Bengali evolved circa (Bangla) language and live in the 1000–1200 AD from the Magadhi Bengal region of the Indian subconti- Prakrit, which developed from the nent located in northeastern South Sanskrit language. It is now the Asia, and most follow either the primary language spoken in Bangla- Hindu or the Muslim faith. The Bengal desh and is the second most com- Region is divided politically between monly spoken language in India. With the nation of Bangladesh and the In- a long and rich literary tradition, Ben- dian state of West Bengal. Bengalis gali binds together a culturally di- themselves refer to their region as verse region and is an important con- Bangla desh, meaning simply "the tributor to Bengali na- tionalism. Geographical Location of Bengali Speakers Lying at the north of the Bay of Bengal and roughly between 22° and 26° N and 86° and 93° E, the Bengal region consists largely of a vast alluvial, deltaic plain, built up by the Ganges River and watered also by the Brahmaputra River system originating LANGUAGE in the eastern Himalaya Bengali (Bangla] is an eastern Mountains. As in much Indo-Aryan language. It is native of South Asia, monsoon to the region of eastern South Asia winds bring a rainy sea- known as Bengal, which comprises son that can last from present day Bangladesh, the Indian April to mid-November. state of West Bengal (recently pro- Bengal's total area is posed to change it to new English approximately 233,000 name Paschimbanga), and parts of square kilometers, of the Indian states of Tripura and As- which about 38 percent sam. It is written with the Bengali (just under 89,000

NEWS&VIEWS + KINGSHUK=V.36/N0.8/2012 7 and National anthem of India was also named Bengali as an "official written and composed in the Bengali language" in recognition of the language by a Bengali, Rabindranath work of 5,300 troops from Bangla- Tagore, was the first Asian to receive desh in the United Nations Mission the Nobel Prize for literature (in in Sierra Leone peacekeeping 1913). The national animal of India, force. the Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera ti- In 2009, elected representatives in gris tigris)is named after the main both Bangladesh and India region (the Bengal delta) in which the (PaschimBengal) called for Bengali language is spoken. Bengali was the to be made an official language of focus, in 1951–52, of the Bengali the United Nations. Language Movement (Bhasha Ando- lon) in what was then East Pakistan Regulated by: Bangla Academy (now Bangladesh). Although the Ben- (Bangladesh) and Paschimbanga gali language was spoken by the ma- Bangla Akademi (West Bengal, In- jority of Bangladesh's population, dia). Urdu was legislated as the sole na- Native speakers: 180 million (1997 tional language. On February 21, –2001), Total: 230 million (2003), 1952, protesting students and activ- now 300 million total speakers. ists were fired upon by military and Language Codes: ISO 639-1: bn, police in the University of Dhaka and ISO 639-2: ben, ISO 639-3: ben three young students and several Linguasphere: 59-AAF-u (including other people were killed. Later on 17 Sylheti etc), 30 varieties: 59-AAF- November 1999, UNESCO decided to ua...59-AAF-ukBengali (Bangla) Bengali homeland," a term adopted celebrate every 21 February as Inter- by the people of eastern Bengal when national Mother Language Day in rec- they won sovereign independence for ognition of the deaths of the three the nation of Bangladesh in 1971. students. In a separate event on May NATIONAL BIRD The native ethnic term for them- 19, 1961, police in Silchar, India, selves is Bangali—of which "Bengali" killed eleven people who were pro- is an anglicization. However, Bengalis testing legislation that mandated the who are citizens of Bangladesh most use of the Assamese language. readily call themselves as Bangla- deshi for establishing the national International Outfits sovereign identity. The word "Bangla script" in Ben- gali script Spoken in Bangladesh, Bengali speakers at Indian States India (mainly in West Bengal); and The following is a list of Indian states significant communities in UK, and union territories with a significant USA, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Ma- percentage of the population in these laysia, Singapore, Middle East, states speaking Bengali Italy, United Arab Emirates, Aus- West Bengal: 85.34%, Tripura: tralia, Burma, Canada. 67.35%, Assam: 27.91%, Andaman Bangla is the official language in & Nicobar Islands: 25.95%, Jhark- Bangladesh, India (West Bengal, hand: 9.69%, Arunachal Pradesh: Tripura and Barak Valley) 9.4%, Mizoram: 9.18%, Meghalaya: (comprising districts of south As- 8.04%, Nagaland: 3.26%, Delhi: sam- Cachar, Karimganj and 1.51%, Uttarakhand: 1.45%, Orissa: Hailakandi). 1.34%, Manipur: 1.3%, Sikkim: Bangla also a recognized secon- 1.18%, Daman & Diu: 1.16%: Chhat- tisgarh: 1%, India: 8.2%. dary language in the City of Kara- chi in Pakistan. Common Linguistic Phenomena of Bengali is a second official lan- India & Bangladesh guage of the Indian state of Jhark- In India, the Bengali language is the hand from September 2011. second most commonly spoken lan- In December 2002, Sierra Leone’s guage, after Hindi. The National song President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah

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