15 August, 3-7 November 1975 Bangladesh coup d'etat

 

Maj Gen Khaled Mosharraf, Bir Uttom was a Bangladesh's military officer known for his great role in the Bangladesh Liberation war in 1971. He was the Sector Commander of Bangladesh Forces Sector 2, leader of the Crack Platoon and K Force Brigade Commander during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. He fought heroically for Bangladesh's independence and was wounded in front line combat against the Pakistan Army.

Under his command K-Force played a crucial role in the unconditional surrender of the Pakistan's Army on 16 December 1971. Although he suffered a bullet injury, he recovered and remained in command of Bangladesh Forces Sector 2. He is best known as an exceptional combatant who had planned and carried out guerrilla warfare from deep within the jungles of Melaghar, India.

More than thirty-five thousand guerilla fighters fought under Khaled's command in sector 2. He was raised to the rank of Major General, the highest rank in the army at that time and appointed Chief of Army Staff on 3 November 1975. Mosharraf led 3 November 1975 Bangladesh coup d'état against the Mostaq Administration who had conspired and seized power unlawfully in Bangladesh in 1975 post the assassination of Bangladesh President Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, but during the military uprising on 7 November, Maj Gen Khaled and his two other loyal deputies were assassinated by shenanigan Gen Zia's military sidekicks.

Maj Gen Ziaur Rahman was then appointed as Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army, replacing K M Shafiullah. Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad praised those derailed military officials (killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) calling them 'shurjo shontan' (sons of the sun). These disgruntled officers who killed Bangabandhucaptured the Bangabhaban (president's official residence) and started dictating the President, causing extreme chaos in the barely four-year-old Nation.

Maj Gen Khaled Mosharraf, who was the Chief of General staff of Bangladesh Army, had asked Ziaur Rahman for the chain of command in Bangladesh Army to be restored which had been rudely interrupted in 15 August. But the Chief of Army Staff Gen Ziaur Rahman, did not display the slightest ability or intention or both to act against the killers.

Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad even issued the Indemnity Ordinance, which gave immunity from prosecution to the killers of Mujib, later the ordinance was passed by Ziaur Rahman. Outraged at Mujib's killing and the protection of his killers, Khaled Mosharraf mobilised army units with Colonel Shafaat Jamil of 46 Brigade to overthrow Ahmad's regime on 3 November. His main motive was to bring back the chain-of-command in the Bangladesh Army, and to achieve that, Khaled Mosharraf decided to stop these killers residing inside the Bangabhaban and staged a coup d'état among the Army. On 3 November 1975, under his order, his true-blue lieutenants Colonel Khondkar Nazmul Huda, Colonel Shafaat Jamil and Lt Colonel A.T.M Haider and their loyalist army officers and soldiersbrought an end to the illegal rule of Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad. Khaled Mosharraf freed Bangabhaban from the occupation of the killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In accordance with his order, the Chief of Military Staff of the Bangladesh Army Major General Ziaur Rahman was put under house arrest.

Though Khaled Mosharraf and his team forced Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to resign, but conceded to Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad's request that the assassins of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman be given safe passage out of Bangladesh. Before the assassins left Bangladesh, they had killed Awami league stalwarts and golden sons of Bangladesh like former Vice President Syed Nazrul Islam, first prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad, former Prime Minister M. Mansur Ali, former Minister AHM Qamaruzzaman who were in Central Jailhouse, Dhaka in the wee hours of 3 November 1975. Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was replaced by the Chief Justice of Bangladesh, Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, who became the next President.

Rumours were then designedly spread in cantonments in Bangladesh that Maj Gen Khaled Mosharraf, Col Nazmul Huda and Lt Colonel A.T.M Haider were Indian agents who would give Bangladesh over to India. But before that, Pakistan welcomed the removal of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and supported killer Khondakar Mostaq Ahmad government. China and Saudi Arabia established diplomatic ties with Bangladesh under Khondakar Mostaq Ahmad regime.

Then came 7 November 1975. On that day, a military coup d'état was launched in conjunction with left wing army personnel and left-wing politicians from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD). The coup also freed Gen Ziaur Rahman from house arrest and made it possible through a mischievously specific action which favoured him to eventually seize power and become illegitimate president of Bangladesh.

Soldiers parading in the street shouted 'Nara-e-Takbeer, Allahu-akbar' and 'Sepoy-Janata Zindabad,' 'Bangladesh Zindabad' … with army convoys and tanks in huge numbers throughout Dhaka City including the Central Shahid Minar campus. The vast majority of tanks and military convoys carried the posters of Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad and the soldiers' chanted slogans in favour Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, the colossal treacherous character of Bangladesh's history and Gen Zia, the country's most immoral military dictator president. The numbers posters of Gen Zia were a few only. I witnessed all these public disturbances in my close proximity and became very dissipated as a petite FF of the 1971 war field.

Col Abu Taher (retd.) along with JSD leaders and their underground forces - 'Gono Bahini' (People's Forces') organised soldiers loyal to them to led thecoup d'état on 7 November 1975 and Major General Ziaur Rahman to replace the government believing him as their own buddy. Maj Gen Khaled Mosharraf, Col Nazmul Huda and Lt Colonel A.T.M Haider tried to resist the coup, but failed, they were then killed by the Army soldiers loyal to Gen Zia and his compadres.

President Justice Sayem was forced to step-down by depraved Gen Zia, and then Zia took the both posts of president and CMLA on April 21, 1977. On 21 July 1976, abominable Maj Gen Ziatraitorously hanged Colonel Taher through a hasty military tribunal.

At the time of arrest of Col Taher by reprobate Gen Zia's forces from the House Tutor's Quarter of his younger brother at SM Hall of Dhaka University Prof Dr Anowar Hossain, I witnessed the entire episode standing nearby SM Hall, very close to Sergeant Zohurul Haque Hall where I lived as a senior resident student of Dhaka University. He came out from that Quarters with smiling and bold face. This great hero of our liberation war to attain Bangladesh in 1971 was then hastily sent to death by a sham military trial under Gen Zia's ill-chosen commands.

Our fallen heroes represent a long history of patriots in our land. The occasion of this lament, threnody, elegy, or funeral dirge, was the arrival of fatal tidings from their brutal murders.

In substance and general character, it is an outburst of natural grief over the fallen heroes, and a celebration of their worth. Their examples, therefore, seem to have a Divine sanction, and plainly teach us the propriety of lamenting the death and commemorating the virtues of those who have been eminently useful in life.

In their honour unselfishly, they left us, they left behind their near and dear ones. Many horrors they had endured and seen. Many faces had haunted their dreams. They cheered as their enemies littered the ground; and they cried as their brothers fell all around.

When the war was over on 16 December, 1971, they all came back home, some were left with memories to face all alone; and some found themselves in the company of friends as their crosses cast shadows across the land of Bangladesh.

I am sure Pakistan's dreaded ISI, America's disdainful CIA, Jamaati butchers and other anti-Bangladesh liberation forces of 1971 were colligated in all horrific incidents which betided from August to November 1975 in Bangladesh.

We need to reveal the truth of those facts which were happened in our national history in the time frame of 1975 to 1981. In this write up, I have only penned-down about those days horrible and conspiracy surrounded incidents and its political back drops. I request the state authority to establish a judiciary commission to inquiry the national and international involvement with those dark days.

'Identifying the agents of distortion is necessary to prevent such incidences in future and the key lies in unfolding the truth about the conspiracy.'
With a hand upon my heart, I feel the pride and respect; my reverence is revealed in the tears that now stream down my upturned face.  As our flag waves above them, in glory and grace, freedom was the gift that they unselfishly gave. Pain and death were the price that they ultimately paid. Every day, I give my utmost admiration to those like they all who had fought to defend our nation.


The writer is an independent
political analyst, who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and
international affairs.