~~ 1971.03.26 ~~
On this very day, 50 years ago, a nation was born out of strife and turbulence.
Her name is BANGLADESH, which means “Land of Bengal”.
The birth story of Bangladesh is not all that glorious. It’s cruel, it’s bloody, and it’s heartbreaking.
Every year, the March 26 brings the most tragic reminiscence of our history’s blackest episode that initiated a nine-month bloody war against Pakistan from the night of March 25, 1971. Almost 3 million Bangladeshi people died, and 3,00,000 women were raped during this war.
On the fateful night of 25th March 1971, the Pakistani military junta launched the “Operation Searchlight” and mercilessly killed the Bangalee members of East Pakistan Rifles and police, students and teachers as well as thousands of common people in Dhaka city. This day in Bangladesh is marked as the “Genocide Remembrance Day”.
In the wake of the military crackdown, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who became the undisputed leader of the then Pakistan following the massive victory of his party, Awami League, in the 1970 general elections, declared the independence of Bangladesh through the then East Pakistan Rifles wireless at 00-30 am on March 26 in 1971.
And this is how a sovereign was born. After 9 months gruesome war, our beloved freedom fighters secured the victory on 16th December 1971. When the Pakistani Armies realized they wouldn’t win this battle, they abducted 200 Bangladeshi intellectuals including professors, doctors, engineers, directors, writers, artists, journalists on 14th December 1971. They never came back to their families as they were executed en masse.
The birth history of Bangladesh is not just a year long. It’s been instigated at the time when government of Pakistan tried to take away our right to speak in Bengali in 1951. Since then too much blood has been shredded to finally get our independence from Pakistan. It’s literally impossible to capture the whole history in such little space. If you are interested to know more, I would recommend you few books on our liberation war.
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