Members of the Mukti Bahini preparing for their next guerilla attack.
On May 1, 1971, General SHFJ Manekshaw issued the Indian Army Operational Instruction No. 52. A structured policy to provide training facilities and logistical and operational support for the liberation of Bangladesh was prepared by Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Eastern Command. The Indian Army was responsible for training, equipping, and providing logistical support to Mukti Bahini. Selection of personnel, discipline, motivation, planning and execution of operations were an exclusive prerogative of the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) Bangladesh. An elaborate procedure was adopted for the selection of recruits for Mukti Bahini. Youth from all over Bangladesh were recruited to cover the entire territory. They were trained in the Indian Army s Operation Jackpot sectors training camps located close to their native places. The Indian Government s Ministry of Rehabi
The month of April 1971 was when the die for the future of Bangladesh's Liberation War was cast. Both Indian and Bangladesh governments got busy in planning operations for expunging the Pakistani occupation forces at the earliest. Indira Gandhi held numerous meetings with cabinet colleagues, bureaucrats and the army top brass.
No tree to be felled unnecessarily at Suhrawardy Udyan: Project Director
UNB
8th May, 2021 10:48:33
As the government gives priority to saving trees, no tree will be felled unnecessarily while implementing the mega plan at the historic Suhrawardy Udyan. For that reason, the government will start planting trees in the coming monsoon and at least 1000 trees will be planted, said the project director of Shawdhinata Stambha (independence monument) construction project (Third Phase) at the Suhrawardy Udyan M Habibul Islam.
He said that after the completion of the project it will take a beautiful look, he said. We hope that those who are denouncing now will appreciate it at the end of the project, if they have that kind of mentality to appreciate, he said.
As a nation Bangladeshis commemorated the golden jubilee of their independence a little more than a month ago. While the official functions and ceremonies were effectively restricted to the invited guests counting top dignitaries from the region and far, ordinary citizens weary of the unannounced blockades of the main thoroughfares (purportedly to provide security to VIPs and facilitate their movements) while reeling under the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, got an opportunity to engage in introspection about the significance of the anniversary and what independence meant to them.
Millions of Bangladeshis remembered with fondness and pride the thumping of the streets of Dhaka by the participants of countless processions observing the civil disobedience movement beckoned by their unquestioned leader on March 7, 1971. They shivered in horror in recalling the barbarity that was unleashed on the ordinary people on the night of March 25 lasting for nine long months. They noted with deep anguis
Exploring public memory of the 1971 war in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India 30 April 2021
Celebrations after the end of Bangladesh’s Liberation War. For Bangladesh, which won its sovereignty on 16 December that year, it was a historic event that led to the realisation of its long-sought dreams of independence. Jack Garofalo / Paris Match / Getty Images
Celebrations after the end of Bangladesh’s Liberation War. For Bangladesh, which won its sovereignty on 16 December that year, it was a historic event that led to the realisation of its long-sought dreams of independence. Jack Garofalo / Paris Match / Getty Images
ON 25 MARCH THIS YEAR, at a feminist webinar to mark fifty years since Bangladesh gained independence, the Pakistani author and oral historian Anam Zakaria spoke about the “political and cultural silencing around the birth of Bangladesh” that she witnessed around her while growing up. She clarified that this was not a “comple