Bangladesh Alters History: New Books To Say 'Ziaur Rahman Declared Freedom', Not Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

2025-01-02 05:00:54

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Bangladesh News: The Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has decided to revise the delta nation's history textbooks to replace 'Bangabandhu' Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the declarer of independence with Ziaur Rahman, the leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and former president. 'On March 26, 1971, Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu', a Daily Star report reads.

The new textbooks have also removed Mujib's title of 'Father of the Nation'.

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According to the Bangladeshi news report , since 2010, following Sheikh Hasina's second term in office, Bangladeshi textbooks have asserted that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the country's independence through a wireless message just before his arrest by the Pakistan Army on March 26, 1971.

Ziaur Rahman was the founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and husband of current BNP chief Khaleda Zia. Mujib, the father of recently deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, led the Bangladesh liberation struggle.

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The legacies of Sheikh Mujib and Ziaur Rahman have always been politically contested, and the question of who proclaimed the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan is disputed.

While the Awami League, the party that steered the Bangladesh liberation struggle under Mujib, claims that it was 'Bangabandhu' who made the declaration, the BNP credits its founder Ziaur.

This has meant that official history is varied depending on the dispensation in Dhaka .

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In 1978, during Ziaur's reign as the Bangladesh president , official history was changed for the first time to proclaim Ziaur as the person who made the Declaration of Independence.

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