New War for Integrity & Sovereignty
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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 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Late Ziaur Rahman 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 Bangladesh, 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) Dhaka 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 West Pakistan (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 Mukti Bahini (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 Operation Searchlight. 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 Chittagong. 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.