DHAKA, Dec 15, 2024 (BSS) - Eminent writer and researcher Badruddin Umar has claimed that true history of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War has not been written properly and what has been written is the official narrative and 80 to 90 percent of those are fabricated.

In an interview with BSS on the eve of the Victory Day 2024, the 93-year old intellectual Badruddin Umar raised various important issues about the history of the Liberation War.

Regarding the distortion of the history of the Liberation War and the debates and attempts to hide the real truth about the war, Badruddin Umar said from the beginning it was presented in such a way that Sheikh Mujib is the great hero of this war.

“Later, Sheikh Hasina used to explain about this War of Liberation as if it was their family affair, their family had led this war. Now it is time to clean up this garbage of history,” he said.

In response to the question of how the Liberation War began, Badruddin Umar said as the ongoing talks on the transfer of power since the beginning of March 1971 broke down and Pakistani army carried out massacre on the night of March 25, the War of Liberation became inevitable.

“Due to this, the people of the country jumped into an uneven war without any preparation. It can be said about Sheikh Mujib that he wanted the independence of Bangladesh as the leader of Awami League, which is a lie,” he said.

“In fact, if we analyze the information, we will see that in 1971, Sheikh Mujib did not want the independence of this Bangladesh, he wanted the highest self-control within the state structure of Pakistan and he himself wanted to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan,” he said.

“He actually could not accept two things, one is that he could not become the Prime Minister of Pakistan, which he wanted and the second one is that Bangladesh became independent in his absence,” said Badruddin Umar.

For this reason, after independence, Sheikh Mujib did not want to know anything about the Bangladesh Liberation War, Tajuddin and other leaders tried to tell what had happened in the country in 1971, but he did not want to listen at all, he added.

Regarding Sheikh Mujib's March 7 speech demanding the proclamation of independence by him, Umar said, it is generally said that March 7 speech was a proclamation of independence, because Sheikh Mujib in his speech said that “this time the struggle is a struggle for independence, a struggle for freedom, etc.”

“But it turns out that these words were completely false. He said these things under the pressure of the situation at that time. Because the uprising of the people had started from March 1,” said Badruddin Umar.

When Yahya said that the meeting of the National Assembly here would not be held on the 3rd March, the uprising intensified without waiting for anyone, he said.

Under the pressure of that situation and the pressure of the students to declare independence at that time; Sheikh Mujib gave this speech, he said.

“In his speech, he called for building forts in every house with sticks - such things. No one builds a fort in every house for the War of Liberation, one has to fight going out from home,” he said.
“It is not a matter of sticks, where the enemy is equipped with cannons, guns and fighter jets; sticks do not work there - these were hollow words of Sheikh Mujib,” he said.
Badruddin Umar said, “He (Sheikh Mujib) is telling those against whom he will fight, you are my brothers. He is telling the Pakistan army, you are my brothers. Such contradictory statements were in the speech of March 7,” he said.

“It is being said that in this speech, the declaration of independence was made, the biggest thing is that this speech was given on the 7th March, then on the 15th March, Yahya Khan came to Dhaka and from then till the 23rd March, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his team discussed with Yahya Khan,” he said.

“What happened during this discussion, did they discuss the demand for independence of Bangladesh, or were they discussing the sharing of power within the state structure of Pakistan. The sharing of power was how much East Pakistan would get, how much West Pakistan would get. Since Sheikh Mujib was the leader of the majority, one of his goals in this sharing was to become the Prime Minister. This is the truth,” he said.

“What was discussed between Yahya and Mujib, the discussion of independence? This shows that no matter how much Awami League boasted, no matter how much they talked about independence - at that time they had no thought of independence. Sheikh Mujib was always seeking compromise and it is not possible to achieve independence of any country in the world through this compromise,” he said.

“Through this compromise, he was seeking some kind of power sharing with the Pakistani government. As a result, when the Pakistani army attacked the people on the night of March 25, panic arose among all the Awami League leaders including Sheikh Mujib, on one side was the non-violent non-cooperation movement of the Awami League, and on the other side was a powerful military force. This Gandhian movement of the Awami League was a ridiculous thing,” he said.

In response to the question, whether Awami League had any preparation for the War,    Badruddin said, “No, there was no preparation for war from AL’s side, rather; they wanted a get a solution in line with the constitution. On the other hand, there was also a fear that an attack might happen as AL took control of various institutions including civil administration, radio, TV since March 7”.

“But the real power was military power and AL had no preparation to confront with it. Awami League's preparation was a hollow matter”, he added.

Badruddin said Pakistani army continued to prepare for launching an attack in one hand while on the other hand; Bengali military officers and soldiers revolted in various places including Dhaka and Chittagong and informed Awami League.

 “But Awami League did not care about it at all since the party was not prepared and did not even think of fighting”, he added.

“With the Pakistan Army’s attack on March 25, the entire structure of Awami League collapsed. Sheikh Mujib kept telling everyone to run away and everyone became busy trying to escape. Sheikh Mujib's leadership collapsed amid military attack,” he observed.

He said the way Awami League carried out the movement completely collapsed as they were not prepared to deal with such a military attack. “They were not prepared for guerrilla warfare either and thus, Awami League felt in a helpless state. The Awami League leaders fled in fear of their lives, most of them to India,” he said.
Why did Sheikh Mujibur Rahman himself stay at home after telling everyone to flee? he questioned, adding, “He (Sheikh Mujib) was supposed to flee and lead the resistance war”.

In response to a related question, ‘What could be the reason behind his staying at home even after the Pakistan Army’s final attack began?’, Badruddin said, “Sheikh Mujib stayed at home to surrender. The Awami League people and their intellectuals say that Sheikh Mujib was arrested by the Pakistani forces and he did not surrender. But I am saying, he himself surrendered”.

“They (Awami League) are angry with me because I have repeatedly mentioned in various articles that Sheikh Mujib himself surrendered,” he said, adding, “Sheikh Mujib was instructing everyone to flee, and he stayed at home, that means he was waiting to do surrender to Pakistani forces. So, this was not an arrest, it was intentional surrender,” he said.

Replying to another question whether Sheikh Mujib was aware of what happening in the country from the Pakistani jail?, he said, “He was in jail there for nine months during the entire war where he was not provided any newspapers or he could watch any news on television or radio”.

“He could not learn any news about the war or he did meet anyone let alone leading the war as a great hero. He did not even know that how the Liberation War had taken place. After being released from the Pakistani jail, he went to London where he found out that the Liberation War had taken place, and the country become independent,” he said.  

But his daughter (Sheikh Hasina) keeps saying that he (Sheikh Mujib) was the great hero of the Liberation War, he said, adding, “They (Awami league) just used the image of Sheikh Mujib as their asset, that’s it. But Sheikh Mujib contributed to the Liberation War, it’s a complete lie, he had nothing to do with the Liberation War”.
“There is no such thing in the history of the world. They left the responsibility of liberating the country in the hands of the Indian government. That is why Indians say that this is an India-Pakistan war, which is true in one sense. The ‘Mujib Bahini’ that was trained in Dehradun, India, did not fight,” he added.

Badaruddin said, “No leader of Awami League directly participated in the war rather they were fine enough staying in Kolkata where they were comfortable. The military force members motivated by patriotism fought here. Awami League did not even want the war which military forces had started”.

The Pakistani army became weak because of the fight carried out by the common people inside the country while external attack had less impact, he said, adding, “The greatest contribution to the war of liberation was made by the people of the country as they fought sacrificing their lives”.

“On the other hand, since the Awami League leaders and workers fled to India, the war became completely controlled by India and thus, it was seen that when the instrument of surrender was signed on December 16, Chief of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army Jagjit Singh Aurora was there and Niazi surrendered to Aurora,” said Badruddin.

Commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces General MAG Osmani was not present during Niazi’s surrender, he said, adding, “Although it was said that the Liberation War was fought under joint command, no representative of Bangladesh was kept here. Group Captain AK Khandaker was present as a spectator and he was not even given a chair. It was the surrender of the Pakistani army to the Indian military”.

Talking about Mujib’s role before and after independence Badruddin said, “After independence, the Indian government and the army put Sheikh Mujib in power. He did not get it with his own power. But the country's people loved him. He could have built a new Bangladesh with the people”.

“But instead, a reign of looting began as Awami League people started looting people’s properties. All the properties of the non-Bengali people were looted. Those who were not with the Awami League had their homes looted, emerging a class of looters with Sheikh Mujib as their leader,” said Badruddin.

Sheikh Mujib nationalized the factories and handed them over to the Awami League people, he said, adding, “After coming to power, he stood against the people. Horrific persecution began across the country. Murdering and torturing JSD leaders and activists began”.

Regarding the formation of ‘Rakkhi Bahini’, Badruddin Umar said, “Sheikh Mujib formed the ‘Rakkhi Bahini’ despite the army's existence because he had no trust on the army which liberated the country fighting for months. It ultimately put the existence of the Awami League at risk as the people who supported Sheikh Mujib did not expect such a scenario”.

“And ultimately, Sheikh Mujib and his party completely lost public support. Later, to escape such a state of isolation, he amended the constitution he had written himself earlier, banning all political parties and forming a one-party “Baksal”. He closed the country's newspapers. Even weekly, monthly, and quarterly newspapers were closed,” he added.

He continued: “We also closed our monthly Sanskriti magazine. There was a terrible famine in the country. On January 1, 1975, Siraj Sikder was arrested and was killed in security custody late at night on January 2. Then Sheikh Mujib stood in the National Parliament and said, "Where is Siraj Sikder?”.

Commenting on Sheikh Mujib's fall and Sheikh Hasina's escape amid the July-August 2024 mass uprising, Badruddin Umar said, “Sheikh Hasina resigned on August 5, 2024 and fled to India fearing for her life. The 15 and half years of fascist Awami rule in Bangladesh have come to an end. This mass uprising is a landmark event after the 1971 Liberation War”.

“Among the mass uprisings that have taken place here since 1952, the July mass uprising is the most widespread, deep and aggressive against the rulers,” he said.
Umar said. “Bangladesh became free from “Rahu”, a Hindu demon who swallows the sun, causing an eclipse, on August 5, 2024. Sheikh Hasina and all levels of her party leaders including ministers, MPs and even the lowest level leaders have fled their homes”.

“The freedom the country people are now enjoying, having freed themselves from the grip of the Awami League government that had been gripping Bangladesh like an octopus for more than 15 years since 2009, has never happened since 1971,”he added.

After the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, a power vacuum was created and the current interim government has historically filled that vacuum, Umar concluded.