The Spirit of Bangabandhu: An Eternal Aureole

 

Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested by the Pakistan’smilitary dictator President General Ayub Khan sometime in 1966 for political reasons, but after two years in jail, an official sedition trial in 1968 in a military court was opened which is widely known as the ‘Agartala Conspiracy Case.’Mujib and 34 Bengali civil and military officers were accused by the Pakistani government of colluding with Indian government agents in scheme to divide Pakistan and imperil its unity, order and national security. The case is officially called State vs. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others, but it is popularly known as ‘Agartala Shorojontro Mamla (Agartala Conspiracy Case’) as the main cabal was guessed to have taken place in the Indian city of Agartala in Tripura state, where Sheikh Mujib's consociates met Indian Intelligence Bureau officials.

The incriminated humans were Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ahmed Fazlur Rahman CSP, Steward Mujibur Rahman, Commander Moazzem Hossain, LS Sultanuddin Ahmad, LSCDI Nur Mohammad, Flight Sergeant Mahfiz Ullah, Corporal Abdus Samad,  Havildar Dalil Uddin, Ruhul Quddus CSP, Flight Sergeant Md. Fazlul Haq, Bibhuti Bhushan Chowdhury alias Manik Chowdhury, Bidhan Krishna Sen, Subedar Abdur Razzaque, clerk Mujibur Rahman, Flight Sergeant Md. Abdur Razzaque, Sergeant Zahurul Haq, Benedict Dias, A.B. Khurshid, Khan Mohammad Shamsur Rahman CSP, AKM Shamsul Haque, Havildar Azizul Haq, Mahfuzul Bari, Sergeant Shamsul Haq, Shamsul Alam, Captain Mohammad Abdul Muttalib, Captain Shawkat Ali, Captain Khondkar Nazmul Huda, Captain A.N.M Nuruzzaman, Sergeant Abdul Jalil, Mahbub Uddin Chowdhury, Lt. M Rahman, Subedar Tajul Islam, Ali Reza, Captain Khurshid Uddeen Ahmed, Master Warrant Officer Abdul Latif Mazumder, and Lt. Abdur Rauf.

Pakistan squared off to implicate Mujib like politicians ahead of all-Pakistan based National Elections in 1970. The accused were then moved from Dhaka Central Jail to the Dhaka Cantonment. The trial began on 19 June 1968 under a special tribunal. The hearings took place inside a secured chamber within the Dhaka Cantonment. The charge sheets of100 paragraphs were presented before the tribunal, with 227 witnesses and 7 approvers.

The tribunal was headed by 3 judges – the chair, Justice SA Rahman was a non-Bengali; the other members MR Khan and Maksum-ul-Hakim were Bengalis. The government was represented by the Attorney General TH Khan and former Foreign Minister Manzur Quader. Thomas Williams, a British lawyer, along with local attorneys challenged the formation of the tribunal by filing a petition in favour of Sheikh Mujib. The approvers appeared in the witness box and testified that they provided false evidence under the brutal coercion of the Pakistani Government.

The Pakistan government was keen to prove that Sheikh Mujib was an Indian agent and a separatist. In the morning of 15 February 1969, a Pakistani Army Habildar shot point blank at Sergeant Zahurul Haq at the door of his jail cell, and killed him. The news of the killing led a furious mob to set fire to the State Guest House and other government buildings where the chief lawyer for the government and the Chair of the tribunal resided. They fled away secretly. Some of the case files and evidence got burnt as a result of the arson.

The outcry and unrest over Mujib's arrest and the charge of sedition against him roused the-then East Pakistan amidst large protests and strikes. Various Bengali political and student groups added demands to address the issues of students, workers and the poor, forming a larger "11-point plan" to oust the dictator and military President Ayub Khan from Pakistan’s politics. Thus, the Bengalis organized mass movement and demanded immediate withdrawal of the case and release of all prisoners.

The government caved to the mounting pressure, dropped the charges on 22 February, 1969 and unconditionally released Mujib and his yokefellows on the same day. He came out from incarceration as a public hero.The case and the resulting uprising are seen as major events leading to Bengali nationalism, the Bangladesh Liberation War and finally attainment of Bangladesh on 16 December, 1971.

I still recollect that Sheikh Hasina (now Premier of Bangladesh and Bangabandhu’s eldest child) was then a student of the University of Dhaka and stayed at Rokeya Hall. As a very young girl, when she came to know of this great news, she took a Rickshaw (a human peddler) from there for her residence at 32 Dhanmondi R/A to meet her great father and the Daily Ittefaq, the powerful voice of Bengali Nationalism and Mujib’s ardent supporter carried a front-page photograph of her who was wearing Salwar and Kamiz with an Urna (a girl’s gauze scarf) in bright smiling face.

Sheikh Mujib was given a mass reception on 23 February, 1969 at Racecourse Ground and conferred upon with the title “Bangabandhu”, meaning Friend of the Bengal amid thunderous hand clapping by the-then famed student leader Tofail Ahmed (now a senior leader of Bangladesh Awami League) on behalf of the Bengali nation.

On 5 December 1969, Mujib heroically sounded out at a public meeting, “I, on behalf of our people, announce today that this land will henceforth be called "Bangladesh" instead of East Pakistan.”Mujib's declaration heightened tensions across the country. The West Pakistani politicians and the military began to see him as a separatist leader. His assertion of Bengali cultural and ethnic identity also re-defined the debate over regional autonomy.

Many scholars and observers believed the Bengali agitation emphasized the rejection of the Two-Nation Theory – the case upon which Pakistan had been created – by asserting the Ethno-cultural identity of Bengalis as a nation. Bangabandhu Mujib was able to galvanize support throughout the-then East Pakistan, which was home to a majority of the national population of Pakistan, thus making him one of the most powerful political figures in the Indian subcontinent. It was following his 6-point plan that Mujib was increasingly referred to by his supporters as "Bangabandhu."

He was a firebrand orator. Once he said, “We will applaud if we make the right decision or we will weep in the end if we make a mistake.”If we remember Bangabandhu, we should also remember what Angelo Patri said, "In one sense there is no death. The life of a soul on earth lasts beyond departure. You will always feel that life touching yours, that voice speaking to you. He/she lives on in your life and in the lives of all others that knew him/her."

The Sheikh led the Bangladesh people to its greatest victory against impossible odds – daring to defy the red eyes of the Pakistani rulers.  His battle was like: “We shall defend our land, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills … we shall never surrender.”

He also possessed incredible wit. However, the highpoint in his career came when he addressed the nation on 7 March, 1971 in the Race Course Ground in a thunderous voice.He transformed all people of Bangladesh into a single platform to fight against the brutal Pakistani Military junta and achieve our beloved country.There is that great proverb – “that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." He was like a lion. He wrote history. He made history. He inspired so many by his example of caring for the poor and needy. So, he was canonized as “The Founding Father” of our nation.

He was the leader of Bangladesh during its height and greatness in the world. He developed a cult following and remains an icon of the politically revolutionary-minded worldwide. Even after his passing, the Sheikh has become a household name, a true testament to his perseverance and dedication to the cause of people’s welfare.

Bangabandhu embodied the love, hope, and understanding that he expressed in his sermons and speeches. One of the greatest personalities ever born in this country and he is Mujib. He is also known as the “People’s Politician”, one of the most charming leaders in the country even in today’s time. As a matter of fact, Sheikh Mujib’s imprisonment for the Agartala Conspiracy Case caused a general uproar in the country. It was learnt from the Bengali Air Force officer Gulam Hossain (when we worked together in a private business firm in 1980), an approver of the case that the Pakistan army planned to shoot Mujib down in the cantonment, but by chance, Sergeant Zahurul Haq was killed.

‘The Agartala case marked the rise, in meteoric manner, of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the spokesman of the Bengalis.’
Undoubtedly, Mujib was a visionary and could see the big picture; he focused on goals and a mission beyond himself; he had remarkable endurance; he showed grit and determination; he was humble, and full of hope. Aspiring leaders everywhere should take the time to study this man, his accomplishments, and the characteristics that helped him and his people in achieving a country on 16 December, 1971.

It is halcyon and good luck to have a great historical figure like him to admire and emulate. The very word ‘Mujib’ is synonymous with the country, Bangladesh. Our people remember him as 'Bangabandhu', an affectionate title used to address this sky-touching political figure. He was a Golden Age superhero who possessed the power of flight, the World's Mightiest Mite, A man of supreme patriotism for his people and for his country. Bangabandhu is no more with us. "The song is ended, but the melody lingers on..." - Irving Berlin.Let us pay tribute to this majuscule soul and his party stalwarts.


Anwar A. Khan is a freedom
 fighter who writes on politics
and international issues.