East Pakistan was the eastern polity, established in 1955 under the One Unit Policy, renaming and restructuring the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, with a coastline on the Bay of Bengal. East Pakistanis were popularly known as "Pakistani Bengalis"; to distinguish this region from India's state West Bengal, East Pakistan was known as "Pakistani Bengal". In 1971, East Pakistan became the newly independent state Bangladesh, which means "country of Bengal" or "country of Bengalis" in Bengali language.
Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan was a Pakistani military officer who served as the third president of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971. He also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army from 1966 to 1971. Along with Tikka Khan, he is considered the chief architect of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, popularly known by the honorific prefix Bangabandhu was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist and diarist. Mujib had held continuous positions as president or prime minister from April 1971 until his assassination in August 1975: as president from 1971 to 1972 and briefly from 1975 until his death, and as prime minister from 1972 to 1975. Mujib successfully led the Bangladeshi independence movement and restored the Bengali sovereignty after over two centuries following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, for which he is honoured as the 'Father of the Nation' in Bangladesh. In 2011, the fifteenth constitutional amendment in Bangladesh referred to Sheikh Mujib as the Father of the Nation who declared independence; these references were enshrined in the fifth, sixth, and seventh schedules of the constitution. His Bengali nationalist ideology, socio-political theories, and political doctrines are sometimes called Mujibism.
Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the fourth president of Bangladesh from 15 August to 6 November 1975, after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was involved in the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. He took on the role of president immediately after the assassination, praised the assassins as "sons of the sun" and put cabinet ministers loyal to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in jail.
Tajuddin Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician and statesman. He led the Provisional Government of Bangladesh as its prime minister during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and is regarded as one of the most instrumental figures in the birth of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BaKSAL) (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ কৃষক শ্রমিক আওয়ামী লীগ, English: Bangladesh Worker-Peasant's People's League; বাকশাল) was a political front comprising Bangladesh Awami League, the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the National Awami Party (Muzaffar) and Jatiyo League.
The Agartala Conspiracy Case was a sedition case in Pakistan during the rule of Ayub Khan against Awami League, brought by the government of Pakistan in 1968 against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then leader of the Awami League and East Pakistan, and 34 other people.
The first president of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and most of his family were killed during the early hours of 15 August 1975 by a group of young Bangladesh Army personnel who invaded his Dhanmondi 32 residence as part of a coup d'état. Minister of Commerce Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad immediately took control of the government and proclaimed himself president. The assassination marked the first direct military intervention in Bangladesh's civilian administration-centric politics. 15 August is National Mourning Day, an official national holiday in Bangladesh.
Shahbagh is a major neighbourhood and a police precinct or thana in Dhaka, the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. It is also a major public transport hub. It is a junction between two contrasting sections of the city—Old Dhaka and New Dhaka—which lie, respectively, to its south and north. Developed in the 17th century during Mughal rule in Bengal, when Old Dhaka was the provincial capital and a centre of the flourishing muslin industry, it came to neglect and decay in early 19th century. In the mid-19th century, the Shahbagh area was developed as New Dhaka became a provincial centre of the British Raj, ending a century of decline brought on by the passing of Mughal rule.
Muhammad Mansur Ali was a Bangladeshi politician who was a close confidant of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh. A senior leader of the Awami League, Mansur also served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh in 1975.
Tofazzal Hossain, popularly known as Manik Miah, was a Pakistani Bengali journalist and politician. He served as the founding editor of The Daily Ittefaq. He wrote the editorial Rajnoitik Moncho. Most of his journalists were considered leftist, as Miah followed the pattern of Awami League. According to journalist and editor of Shongbad Bozlur Rahman, Awami activists followed his editorial more than any actual decision of a meeting. He was a close associate of the founder of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Bangladesh's military history is intertwined with the history of a larger region, including present-day India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. The country was historically part of Bengal – a major power in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The history of East Bengal and East Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 covers the period of Bangladesh's history between its independence as a part of Pakistan from British colonial rule in 1947 to its independence from Pakistan in 1971.
The independence of Bangladesh was declared on 26 March 1971, at the onset of the Bangladesh Liberation War by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; the following day the declaration was broadcast by Major Ziaur Rahman in a radio broadcast. On 10 April, the Provisional Government of Bangladesh issued a proclamation on the basis of the previous declaration and established an interim constitution for the independence movement.
The Provisional Government of Bangladesh, popularly known as the Mujibnagar Government; also known as the Bangladeshi government-in-exile, was a provisional government that was established following the declaration of independence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh on 10 April 1971. Headed by prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad, it was the supreme leadership of the Bangladeshi liberation movement, comprising a cabinet, a diplomatic corps, an assembly, an armed force, and a radio service. It operated as a government-in-exile from Kolkata.
Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, often shortened as Maulana Bhashani, was a Bengali politician. His political tenure spanned the British colonial India, Pakistan and Bangladesh periods. Maulana Bhashani was popularly known by the honorary title Mozlum Jananeta for his lifelong stance advocating for the poor. He gained nationwide mass popularity among the peasants and helped to build the East Pakistan Peasant Association. Owing to his political leaning to the left, often dubbed Islamic Socialism, he was also called 'The Red Maulana'.He is considered as one of the main pillars of Bangladeshi independence of 1971.
A.Z.M. Enayetullah Khan was a Bangladeshi journalist and government minister. He founded the weekly newspaper Holiday and the daily newspaper New Age. He served in Ziaur Rahman's Cabinet, first as Minister of Land Administration and Land Reform from December 1977 to June 1978, and then as Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources from July 1978 to October 1978.
Yar Mohammad Khan was one of the founders and the first treasurer of the Bangladesh Awami League, the main political party that eventually led Bangladesh's struggle for independence against the West Pakistan regime.
Nizam Mohammad Serajul Alam Khan, commonly known as Serajul Alam Khan, also called as Dada, Dadabhai and by his initials SAK, was a Bangladeshi politician, political analyst, philosopher and writer who spearheaded the Bangladesh liberation movement under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman but also became one of the controlling forces of political polarization in post-independence Bangladesh.
The premiership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman began on January 12 of 1972 when he was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh after briefly serving as the President after returning from Pakistan's jail on January 10, 1972. He served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh until January 25, 1975, for three years, and later led the parliament to adopt an amendment of the constitution that made him the President of Bangladesh, effectively for life.
