| History of Bangladesh |
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 Bangladeshportal |
Bangladesh has undergone several changes of government since the Proclamation of Independence in 1971. Between the first recorded uprising in August 1975 and the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles revolt, Bangladesh has been through as many as 29 military coups. [1]
The 15 August 1975 Bangladesh coup d'état was a military coup launched by mid ranking army officers in Bangladesh on 15 August 1975. The officers planned to put an end to the socialist one-party state regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with a nationalist democratic government led by Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed. Sheikh Mujib and most of his family members were killed in the coup. [2] [3]
Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was removed from power in a coup on 3 November 1975. This was organized by Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf, Bir Uttom, a decorated veteran of the Bangladesh war of Independence in 1971. Commotion and misinformation spread across the power circles in Dhaka. Mosharraf was seen by many as a supporter of Sheikh Mujib's government. He put Major General Ziaur Rahman, the Chief of Army Staff and fellow independence War leader, who was not believed to have supported the August coup, under house arrest but did not execute him. Some commentators said that the personal friendship between the two officers led to Mosharraf sparing Rahman's life.
The 7 November 1975 Bangladesh coup d'état was a coup d'état launched by left wing army personnel in collaboration with left-wing politicians from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal. The coup killed Khaled Mosharraf who had removed those involved in the Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from power. Following it, a military junta interim government led by Chief Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem was formed.
Ziaur Rahman survived as many as 21 assassination attempts beginning since the war of Independence in 1971. He was killed in the final attempt by army officers on May 30, 1981. Assassination attempts were being conspired by at least one outside nation. Many facts and rumours abounded. From 30 September 1977 till 2 October, a series of incidents occurred in an attempt to remove the Zia Administration from power. The incident initiated in the hijacked JAL flight from India that was force landed in Dhaka with 156 passengers as hostages. Jessore and Bogra Cantonment reacted from the disinformation which led to the chaos and commotion resulting from the JAL flt. 472 hijacking incident. BAF and BD Army officers were assassinated including many other members. The rebellion was put down and Zia administration was saved. The JAL flight force landed in Dhaka international airport in Tejgaon fully armed with Japanese Red army men who took off from Delhi, India.
By 2 October 1977, another revolt erupted, after eleven Air Force officers were murdered by the Red Army men two days before. But they failed in the attempt. Following this, the coup was begun. An estimated 2,500 armed forces personnel were executed following convictions in courts martial for their part in the coup. Officially 1,183 soldiers were convicted. 561 were Bangladesh Air Force airmen and rest were Army soldiers.
During his term of power, Zia continued to enjoy overall popularity and public confidence. Supporters of the Awami League and veterans of the independence war continued to undermine his actions. Amidst speculation Zia went on tour to Chittagong on May 29, 1981, to help resolve an intra-party political dispute in the regional Bangladesh National Party. Zia and his entourage stayed overnight at the Chittagong Circuit House, a rest house.[ citation needed ] In the early hours of the morning of May 30, he was assassinated by a group of army officers, who also killed six of his bodyguards and two aides. [4] Zia's assassination was part of a large conspiracy masterminded by Indian born Lt. General Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Manzoor had earlier been a senior army commander and had been transferred to Chittagong.
After the Assassination of Ziaur Rahman on 30 May 1981, the then Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, started to distance himself from the civilian government in place. [5] He ordered the army to suppress any investigation of Zia's assassination. Ershad did not spare any chance of Major General Abul Manzoor's trial or investigation. Manzoor surrendered and immediately was taken in cantonment. Twelve hours later, he was executed. Upon Zia's assassination, Ershad ultimately got rid of a major section of Independence War participants from the army, and buried any traces of evidence that could incriminate him.
Zia was buried at the Chandrima Uddan in the locality of Sher-e-Banglanagar in Dhaka. [6] Large processions of the public across the nation along with supporters and BNP activists attended the funeral. Vice president Abdus Sattar immediately succeeded him as the acting president.[ citation needed ]
Lieutenant General Ershad expressed loyalty to the new president Abdus Sattar, who led the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to victory in elections in 1981.
Soon after the BNP government continued with Zia's policies and moved on with the business of governing. Lt. Gen. Ershad waited for the right signals to grab to power.
In a bloodless coup on 24 March 1982, Ershad stormed into Bangabhaban and at gunpoint removed President Sattar from office and proclaimed himself Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA), and suspended the constitution. He took over as president on 11 December 1983 by replacing A. F. M. Ahsanuddin Chowdhury. [7]
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Lieutenant General Abu Saleh Mohammad Nasim staged an abortive coup in 1996 against the caretaker government. On 19 May 1996, Abdur Rahman Biswas, the President of Bangladesh during a caretaker government, ordered Nasim to force the retirement of two senior army officers. The President believed that they were involved in political activities with opposition parties. Nasim refused to comply.
The next day, Biswas sacked him and sent soldiers to control the state radio and television stations. On noon that day, General Nasim ordered soldiers of Bogra, Jessore and Mymensingh divisions to march towards Dhaka.
The Ninth Infantry Division's Major General Imamuzzaman, who commanded the division located closest to Dhaka, remained loyal to the President. He directed the removal of all boats and ferries from Jamuna River in Aricha port, so that Bogra and Jessore divisions could not cross the river. He sent a contingent of troops with tanks to blockade the Dhaka-Mymenshing highway. This prevented Mymensingh Division Army from entering Dhaka.
In the meantime, Major General Mohammad Anwar Hossain, General Officer Commanding of the 33rd Infantry Division located in Comilla, also came to the aid of the president. He mobilized a fully geared 101 Infantry Brigade, under the command of Brig. Shah Ikram (later Maj. Gen.) to Dhaka to fortify Bangabhaban, the presidential palace. The 33rd Division was deployed, using an Infantry Battalion and a company of tanks from the 7th Horse Armoured Battalion at the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, to create a blockade against the 24th Infantry Division located in Chittagong.
The government broadcast announcements asking all soldiers to stay at their own cantonment. After some hours, Mymensingh Division soldiers returned to their barracks. The Chittagong Division never mobilized towards Dhaka. The General Officer Commanding of the Chittagong Division realized that the military coup was highly unlikely to succeed. That night Nasim was interviewed by the BBC and, in reference to troop movements, he said that as Army Chief, he could move troops any time he wanted.
Nasim was arrested by the Brigade Commander of 14 Independent Engineers Brigade and put under house arrest in the Army Mess behind Army Central Library, Staff road, Dhaka Cantonment. Later Awami League government, which was elected to power in 1996, granted him a formal retirement. Since then, he has remained a private citizen.
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Army Chief Lt. Gen Moeen U. Ahmed staged a military coup on 11 January 2007. The military-backed Caretaker Government (CTG) was formed outside the constitutional provisions. Fakhruddin Ahmed was made head of government. President Iajuddin Ahmed had to run the presidency at gun point during said army rule. Lt. Gen. Moeen upgraded the Army Chief of Staff's rank to General. Moeen extended the rule of the CTG for two years and his tenure as army chief for one year. The coup ended in 2008 after the military government held a parliamentary election in December 2008 and transfer of power was handed over to the Awami League, which won 230 seats in parliament.
The Bangladesh Rifles revolt was a mutiny staged on 25 and 26 February 2009 in Dhaka by a section of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), a paramilitary force mainly tasked with guarding the borders of Bangladesh. The rebelling BDR soldiers took over the BDR headquarters in Pilkhana, killing the BDR Director-General Shakil Ahmed along with 56 other army officers and 17 civilians. They also fired on civilians, held many of their officers and their families hostage, vandalised property and looted valuables. By the second day, unrest had spread to 12 other towns and cities. [8] [9] The mutiny ended as the mutineers surrendered their arms and released the hostages [10] after a series of discussions and negotiations with the government. [11]
The 2011 Bangladesh coup attempt was a coup planned for 11–12 January 2012 that was stopped by the Bangladesh Army in December 2011. This was announced at a press conference on 19 January 2012. The purpose of the coup was to establish Islamic law in Bangladesh. [12] [13] A number of officers including retired ones were arrested. [14] The coup plotters argued that they were nationalists trying to prevent Bangladesh from being turned into a puppet of India. [15]
The Bangladesh Armed Forces are the military forces of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. They consist of the three uniformed military services: the Bangladesh Army, the Bangladesh Navy and the Bangladesh Air Force. The Armed Forces are under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Defence of the Government of Bangladesh, and are directly administered by the Armed Forces Division of the Prime Minister's Office. The President of Bangladesh serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. Bangladesh has the third-largest defence budget in South Asia, The Bangladeshi military is the 37th strongest in the world and the third most powerful military force in South Asia. Border Guard Bangladesh and Bangladesh Coast Guard are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs. during peacetime, but during wartime they fall under the command of Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh Navy respectively.
Ziaur RahmanBU HJ HOR was a Bangladeshi military officer, freedom fighter and politician who served as the sixth President of Bangladesh from 1977 until his assassination in 1981. He was the founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He previously served as the third chief of army staff from 1975 to 1978 with a minor break.
Hussain Muhammad Ershad was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the leader of Bangladesh from 1982 to 1990, ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1982 to 1983 and as president of Bangladesh from 1983 to 1990.
Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the Minister of Commerce in the third Mujib Rahman ministry under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and assumed the presidency of Bangladesh after the Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975. He praised the assassins as "sons of the sun" and put cabinet ministers loyal to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in jail. He was himself deposed by another coup, less than three months later on November 3, 1975.
Lt. Col. Abu Taher BU was a Bangladeshi military officer and war hero. He first served in the Pakistan Army, and later defected to the Bangladesh Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War. He crossed into India around early August and reported to the Indian authorities. After a week screening at Dehradun, India, Taher reported to Kolkata, Bangladesh Provincial government at 8 Theatre Rd. He was ordered to report to Sector 11 of Mukti Bahini under command of Major Ziaur Rahman, he became the sector commander after him. He served in BDF from end of August to 2 November 1971. He was awarded the medal Bir Uttom for his gallantry in the liberation war. He was released from military service by Indian military medical board in Pune, India after his leg was amputated. After independence, he was inducted into the Bangladesh Army for administrative retirement with legacy rank of lieutenant colonel. After settling in with family, the government of Bangladesh appointed him with employment at Kumilla. Later Taher turned into a political activist and leader of the left-wing Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal.
The Bangladesh Army is the land warfare branch and the largest component of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The primary mission of the Army is to defend the land of Bangladesh from any external attack. Control of personnel and operations is administered by the Army Headquarters, Dhaka Cantonment. The Bangladesh Army is also constitutionally obligated to assist the government, during times of domestic national emergency e.g. the army helps people during any natural calamity. This additional role is commonly referred to as "aid to civil administration" or, using the Latin form, "Protectio, Transparentia, Reintegratio", in others words, "Protect and Serve".
Major General Khaled Mosharraf BU was a Bangladeshi army officer who is known for his role in the Bangladesh Liberation War and the subsequent coups in post-independence Bangladesh. After deposing Khondakar Mustaq Ahmad in the 3 November 1975 coup, Mosharraf was assassinated on 7 November 1975.
Abdur Rahman Biswas was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the President of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996. Biswas represented Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly, prior to the independence of Bangladesh.
National Revolution and Solidarity Day is a commemorative and former public holiday celebrated in Bangladesh on November 7. The day pays homage to the Sipahi-Janata revolution in 1975 by regular army soldiers of Dhaka Cantonment and the common masses that showed solidarity with them in support of the deposed government against a military coup. The uprising, though organised by Lt. Col. (retd.) Abu Taher and his clandestine revolutionary socialist group of sepoy mutineers, the Biplobi Shainik Sangstha (BSS), to unsuccessfully create a socialist revolution, resulted in a counter coup. In the backdrop of the 15 August coup against Sheikh Mujib, it ended the four-day long coup d'état to remove from power Mujib's replacement President Khondaker Mostaq and the mid-ranking anti-Mujib army officers backing him, Capt. Abdul Majed, Maj. Syed Faruque Rahman, Maj. Khandaker Abdur Rashid and Maj. Shariful Haque Dalim, organised by the pro-Mujib Brig. Gen. Khaled Mosharraf, who was assassinated in the aftermath. Meanwhile, the soldiers proceeded to release Maj. Gen. Ziaur Rahman, who was put under house arrest at the inception of the coup by Mosharraf.
Syed Faruque Rahman was a coup member involved in toppling the Sheikh Mujib regime in Bangladesh. He was convicted and hanged on 28 January 2010 along with co-conspirators Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Mohammad Bazlul Huda in Dhaka Central Jail, Old Dhaka, for the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and the first president of Bangladesh. Syed Faruque Rahman and his close ally Khondaker Abdur Rashid were the chief organisers of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. He was 2IC of the 1st Bengal Lancers Regiment of the Bangladesh Army who led a group of junior army officers in order to overthrew the regime of Sheikh Mujib and install Khondaker Mushtaque Ahmed as president of Bangladesh.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of his family members during the early hours of 15 August 1975 by a group of Bangladesh Army personnel who invaded his residence as part of a coup d'état. The Minister of Commerce, Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, immediately took control and proclaimed himself head of an interim government from 15 August to 6 November 1975; he was in turn succeeded by Chief Justice Abu Sayem. The assassination marked the first direct military intervention in Bangladesh's civilian administration. Lawrence Lifschultz characterized this incident as an outcome of the Cold War between the United States-influenced Pakistan and the Soviet Union-influenced India. 15 August is annually observed as National Mourning Day, a commemorative day in Bangladesh.
Ziaur Rahman, the sixth president of Bangladesh, was assassinated by a faction of officers of Bangladesh Army, on 30 May 1981, in the southeastern port city of Chittagong. Rahman went to Chittagong to arbitrate in a clash between the local leaders of his political party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. On the night of 30 May, a group of officers commandeered the Chittagong Circuit House, a government residence where Rahman was staying, shooting him and several others.
Muhammed Abul ManzurBU was a Bangladeshi military officer who commanded the Bangladesh Forces operations in Sector 8 during the Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan in 1971. He was allegedly involved in the assassination of the then-president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman. The erstwhile chief of army staff and alleged mastermind of Rahman's assassination, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, had put a standing shoot-to-kill order on Manzur's life—he was killed shortly after being captured at the border. About a year later, Ershad initiated a bloodless coup d'état and took over the central government, holding power until 1990.
The 1982 coup d'état was a military coup by Lt. Gen. Hussain Muhammad Ershad, the then-Chief of Army Staff of Bangladesh, against President Abdus Sattar. After serving initially as the Chief Martial Law Administrator and installing a civilian president, Justice A. F. M. Ahsanuddin Chowdhury, Ershad assumed presidency in 1983 and ruled until 1990.
Abu Taher Mohammad Haider, Bir Uttom was a Bangladesh Army officer and recipient of Bir Uttom, the second highest military award in Bangladesh. He fought in the Bangladesh Liberation War as the second-in-command of the K force under Khaled Mosharraf. Later he became the sector commander of sector-2 from 22 September 1971. After the assassination of the President of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujib in a military coup; he joined a counter coup led by his former commander Major General Khaled Mosharraf. He was killed in a situation marred with confusion along with Khaled Mosharraf on 7 November 1975 by proponents of a counter coup led by Colonel Abu Taher.
The military coup in Bangladesh on August 15 of 1975 was launched by mid-ranking army officers in order to assassinate founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose administration post-independence grew corrupt and reportedly authoritarian until he established a one-party state-based government led by the socialist party Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League. Mujib, along with his resident family members, were killed during the coup but was survived by his two then-expat daughters, one of them being future prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The officers were led by Capt. Abdul Majed, Maj. Syed Faruque Rahman, Maj. Khandaker Abdur Rashid and Maj. Shariful Haque Dalim.
The 7 November 1975 Bangladesh coup d'état, also known as the Sipahi-Janata revolution, was a coup d'état launched by left-wing army personnel in collaboration with left-wing politicians from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal. The coup resulted in the death of Major General Khaled Mosharraf, who only 3 days prior, led a coup against those involved in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. During the coup, Ziaur Rahman was freed from house arrest, enabling him to seize power and become president.
The 3 November coup d'état was a military coup in 1975 by Brig. Gen. Khaled Mosharraf against President Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad. It was the result of a power struggle between the regime of Mostaq Ahmad and the mid-ranking officers backing him, Capt. Abdul Majed, Maj. Syed Faruque Rahman, Maj. Khandaker Abdur Rashid and Maj. Shariful Haque Dalim, and Mosharraf and the high-ranking officers supporting him, Col. Shafaat Jamil, Lt. Col. Abu Taher Mohammad Haider and Col. Khondkar Nazmul Huda. The high-ranking officers were worried about army discipline with "junior mutinous officers issuing orders from the presidential palace". With the coup, Mosharraf promoted himself to the rank of major general and the post of Chief of Army Staff after placing Maj. Gen. Ziaur Rahman under house arrest while the mid-ranking officers went on exile, as was agreed upon between the belligerents. The coup lasted 3 days, after which A. S. M. Sayem was installed as president while Mosharraf served as the Chief Martial Law Administrator.
The Biplobi Shainik Sangstha was a clandestine revolutionary socialist group of sepoy mutineers within the Bangladesh Army, active from 1973 to 1975. The BSS was formed by the Leninist socialist party Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and led by Maj. M.A. Jalil and Lt. Col. (retd.) Abu Taher. The BSS is known for staging the 7 November 1975 coup through the Sipahi-Janata revolution, which would eventually make way for the rise of Lt. Gen. Ziaur Rahman in the country's politics.
The Sayem ministry led what eventually became the first interim government in independent Bangladesh and an unofficial model for future interim regimes. It was formed on 8 November 1975, following the assassination of Brig. Gen. Khaled Mosharraf on 7 November amid a nationwide soldier and public uprising against his 3 November coup d'état. After a three-day coup with support of some high-ranking officers and his Dhaka Brigade, Mosharraf had forced Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, who, following the 15 August coup that assassinated the autocratic founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, replaced him as President of Bangladesh with support of the mid-ranking assassin officers, to resign. Chief Justice Sayem, with the constitutional requirement for the direct election of the president and role of the vice-president as acting president suspended by Mostaq under a martial law proclamation, had been installed in his place. With Mosharraf's death the responsibility of CMLA fell on Sayem.
President Ziaur Rahman, only 45, lay dead with two aides and six bodyguards in a government rest house in Chittagong. All were reportedly shot by an assassination squad, led by [Major General] Manjur, in the early morning hours Saturday.
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