Why Bangla Desh?

On 26 March 1971 the usual news broadcast from the Chittagong Station of Radio Pakistan was interrupted at 2.05 p.m. Dacca Betar Kendra till then under the control of the staff who owed their allegiance to Mujibur Rahman had already been taken over by the Pakistan army in the morning. At 2 p.m. the Chittagong Radio station was relaying a news broadcast from Karachi, when suddenly, it was interrupted and Abdul Hannan, Secretary of the Chittagong District Awami League, made the first public declaration of independence of Bangla Desh. He did it in the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was a short but unique declaration. Hannan appealed to every able bodied man and woman to be ready to face the enemy soldiers i.e., the Pakistani occupation army. Later, Awami League workers claimed that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman himself had made the declaration at 11 p.m. the preceding night (on 25 March) and had communicated it to important party leaders outside Dacca.