India News | Morarji Withdrew Support to Kader Bahini Set Up After Mujib Killing: Book

Kolkata, Aug 15 (PTI) A recently released book of memoirs by a close aide of Bangladesh's slain founder Sheikh Mujibur Rehman claims that after the leader's brutal murder on August 15, 1975, Morarji Desai who took over as prime minister of India in 1977 withdrew support from Kader Bahini, a group of ex-freedom fighters, which opposed the new regime militarily.

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The book `Untranquil Recollections: Nation Building in Post-Liberation Bangladesh' by Rehman Sobhan, a well-known economist and Member of Bangladesh's first planning commission said the only person who registered a protest to the killing of Mujib and most of his family members in the early hours of August 15, 46-years ago, was a freedom fighter Kader Siddiqui who set up a Kader Bahini to challenge the coup leaders.

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The book records that Kader's low-level insurgency using demobilised Mukti Bahini freedom fighters continued for several years against the then regime ruling Bangladesh but claims this eventually came to an end when Morarji Desai replaced Indira Gandhi as prime minister in 1977.

It went on to allege that Desai withdrew support from the Kader Bahini, leaving it to its own devices. Sobhan says in his book published by Sage Publications, “Morarji's regime withdrew support for Kader's insurgency … Bangladesh army attack(ed) Kader's forces from the rear and destroy(ed) it.”

The book also says that most Bangladeshis expected Rakkhi Bahini, a loyalist brigade originally trained by India's R&AW to launch a counter-coup, but this never came about.

The author also laments in his book that the powerful Awami league with a huge number of party members with its tentacles in student and labour politics also did not try and intervene to counter the coup.

Sobhan, a contemporary and friend to Amartya Sen and Dr Manmohan Singh wrote “we expected some reaction from the RB which was set up to respond to such an event … The RB had a strong force, quite capable of taking on whatever military force was deployed in Dhaka.”

Rakkhi Bahini which had a strength of about 8,000 troops had been specially chosen as a Praetorian guard, had metamorphosed from an earlier Mujib Bahini, which was formed, trained and armed, in 1971 by Research & Analysis Wing, India's external spy agency as a loyalist force to guard against counter-revolution.

Indian journalist Mahendra Ved who was posted in Dhaka representing a news agency in 1975 agreed with Sobhan and said “It was a big surprise that a handful of army officers with tanks which did not even have shells could carry out the coup while one of Asia's largest political party and a guard body like RB set up to protect Mujib stayed inactive.”

Sobhan recounts in his book that RB's director general Brig. Nuruzamman was out of the country and his two deputies – colonels Anwar Ul Alam and Sabihuddin looked to guidance from Tofail Ahmed, then political commissar of the force. However, a panicked Ahmed was unable to guide them and later surrendered.

Writing about events leading to the massacre, Sobhan says that a visit in June 1974 by Pakistan's Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was an eye-opener for many. Hundreds lined up along streets to greet Bhutto with pro-Bhutto and pro-Pakistan slogans.

Hinting that the crowd was organised by Pakistan's spy agency, the economist pointed out that Bhutto's papers which were later scanned by his biographers, included a letter from pro-China Maoist Abdul Haq, complaining that he had not received promised payments.

On August 15, the next year, as India was getting ready for its Independence Day celebrations, Sobhan was awakened early morning by a phone call that asked him to switch on the television set. The leader of the killer task force, Major Dalim announced that ‘tyrant' Mujib was dead.

A cabal of Bangladeshi middle rung army officers had stormed the president's house with a handful of tanks backing them and slaughtered Mujib and most members of his family. Only his daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana escaped s they were then in Germany on a visit.

The Bangladesh Army did not act against the mutineers and a disgruntled former confidante Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad took over as president in the presence of the service chiefs.

Sobhan writes “all those of the Bangladesh cabinet who were in Dhaka were rounded up at gun-point and compelled to attend Mostaq's swearing-in ceremony.” He says a call to action by Awami League's general secretary Zillur Rahman would have galvanised the party's thousands of faithful but “he remained silent.”

“Abdul Razzak, the president of Secha Sebak Bahini (Volunteer Force), a large body of young men with many holding arms and the Shramik League (Labour League) also remained inert. Similarly, the Chatra League (Awami league's student wing) with many having arms at their disposal remained inactive,” the book says.

Ved told PTI over the telephone “Awami League of that time was riven by faction fights, while the Rakkhi Bahini leadership was perhaps not up to the mark to handle this tumultuous event.”

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)