Did Ziaur Rahman fight for Pakistan or Bangladesh, asks PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today once again questioned Ziaur Rahman's loyalty during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh.

"[Mirza] Aslam Beg [who was a Pakistan army officer in Bangladesh at that time] wrote a letter to Ziaur Rahman during the Liberation War expressing satisfaction over his activities," she said.

This raised the question whether Zia, who later founded BNP, had fought for Bangladesh or Pakistan, she said while addressing a discussion meeting at Awami League office in the city's Tejgaon, organised by the ruling AL on the occasion of the Independence and National Day celebrated yesterday.

In that letter, she claimed, Mirza Aslam Beg also said that wife and sons of Ziaur Rahman were fine in Dhaka Cantonment.

"The question is if the person had proclaimed the independence, then why the Pakistanis took care of the wife and sons of that person in the cantonment, and wrote a letter stating satisfaction over his job," she said.

The AL chief said the war was fought in the 11 sectors of the country during the Liberation War, but the sector led by Zia saw the most killings of freedom fighters.

"The most casualties were in there," she said.

She said that during any operation Ziaur Rahman used to keep himself in a safe place pushing the freedom fighters to the field of action, which caused huge casualties as he could not take decision based on ground reality.

"The casualties happened due to a lack of proper leadership by him [Ziaur Rahman]," she said.

She mentioned that the successful operation in any battle means attaining desired goal through fewer casualties.

"Zia could not do that, as a result Aslam Beg expressed satisfaction," she said.

General Beg served as the third Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from 1988 until his retirement in 1991. His appointment as chief of army staff came when his predecessor, President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, died in an air crash on August 17, 1988.

Regarding the proclamation of independence on the night of March 25 (early on March 26), she said Bangabandhu's proclamation was relayed through wireless, but after the assassination of the father of the nation, history was distorted.

"In the distorted history it was said that one major standing on a drum blew the whistle and Bangladesh got independence. A country cannot attain independence this way. If this could be done then the history of Bangladesh would have been written differently," she said.

She said nowadays BNP leaders are searching for democracy, and one BNP leader claimed that on March 25 Awami League leaders fled from Bangladesh. If that was true, who then fought the fight and who brought the victory, she asked.

She said the elected public representatives of the 1970 elections formed the first-ever government of independent Bangladesh with Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the president, Syed Nazrul Islam as the vice-president and Tajuddin Ahmed as the prime minister.

After forming this government on April 17 of 1971 they took oath at Meherpur and carried out the Liberation War, she said.

She said Ziaur Rahman was a sector commander of that government as a salaried person under the Awami League government.

"They [BNP leaders] must not forget this fact. They must not forget that after independence Ziaur Rahman was promoted from major to major general. These ungrateful persons forget that also."

She ridiculed a BNP leader's act of burning his shawl calling for boycott of Indian goods.

She asked BNP leaders to search the Indian sarees under the possession of their wives and burn those and also stop using Indian spices in their kitchen.

She said people rejected BNP for their arson terrorism and killing of people.

"Those who were rejected by people, could not win election in democratic system, now they are searching for democracy," she said.

Awami League advisory council member Amir Hossain Amu, presidium members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, Abdur Razzaque, and Shajahan Khan, Health Affairs Secretary and State Minister for Health Rokeya Sultana, Dhaka District President Benzir Ahmed, Dhaka City South General Secretary Humayun Kabir, and Dhaka City North General Secretary SM Mannan Kochi.

AL Publicity and Publication Secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap and his deputy Syed Abdul Awal Shameem moderated the discussion.