Thread by @AutoVader

1. Ever wondered what happened in #Bangladesh ‘after’ #1971? I used to think about it a lot growing up. At the time it never occurred to me that it was our collective way of forgetting that 🇧🇩was ever part of our history. If you are a history buff like me, you'll enjoy this.

2. On #16Dec 1971, Sheikh Mujib was in custody in West Pakistan. He was released in Jan 1972 and arrived in Dhaka via London and New Delhi on 10 Jan 1972. Naturally, he received a hero’s welcome. The Bengalis called him Bangabandhu, Friend of Bengal.

3. He became the PM and was able to pass a new constitution within a year enshrining the principles of secularism and socialism in it. Unfortunately, running a country proved harder for him and his party, the Awami League (AL), than they had envisioned.

4. In the 1973 Yom Kippur war, BD sent medical aid to Egypt. After the war, Anwar Sadat sent a gift of 30 tanks and 400 rounds to BD. Mujib, ever suspicious of the Army, stationed the tanks in Dhaka, and had the rounds locked up in a different base. Remember this fact for later.

5. Socialism strained the struggling economy further and lawlessness became rampant. Corruption and cronyism became the order of the day, and the AL became a criminal syndicate tormenting the masses. In some areas the Army had to be deployed to maintain public order.

6. As young officers on civil duties learnt first hand, each time an AL member was arrested and handed over to the police, he would be out the next day. Widespread disconnect with Mujib and the AL began spreading in the Army too.

7. In 1975, Mujib tried to consolidate his rule, by turning the country into a single-party state with himself as President. The more authoritarian he grew the more unpopular he became and people began murmuring that something had to be done.

8. Enter Maj Faruque Rahman, 2IC of the 1st Bengal Lancers, stationed in Dhaka with tanks but no ammo. Faruque, himself the son of an officer, had grown up in Army cantts. He finished 4th in his course in PMA and opted for the Armoured Corps, joining 13th Lancers.

9. He always considered himself a Pakistani nationalist but when he learnt of the Army’s atrocities in East Pakistan as part of the Op Search Light, he went AWOL from his deployment in the UAE and made his way to East Pakistan.

10. Faruque had been one of the officers deployed on civil duties and was disgusted by AL’s excesses and Mujib’s blind eye to them. His brother in law, Maj Khandaker Abdur Rashid, CO of the 2nd Field Artillery was also in Dhaka. Together, they planned a coup to oust Mujib.

11. On the night of 15 Aug 1975, with the help of serving and retired officers, and specially trained teams of ‘hunter-killer’ squads, they stormed Mujib’s official residence. Mujib along with all members of his family were gunned down.

12. Two of his daughters on a foreign trip survived. One is the current PM of Bangladesh, Hasina Wajid and the other’s daughter is an MP in the British Parliament. Along with Mujib, the hunter-killer teams killed several AL leaders and in some cases their families too.

13. The tanks supplied by Sadat played an important role in pacifying Dhaka’s pro-Mujib population. Unknown to most Bengalis at the time, the tanks Faruque had deployed during the coup never had any ammunition! The image of tanks rolling down the street was enough.

14. After the coup, the two majors appointed their hand picked successor, Khandaker Moshtaque the President of Bangladesh and put him on radio. It is worth mentioning that the Army high command did not respond to the coup or try to arrest the killers of the founding father.

15. In the following months, the two majors began attending all high level meetings at GHQ. Despite their rank, they had become more powerful than all of the high command. This led to resentment against them particularly by the pro-Mujib officers.

16. Just three months after the coup, on 3rd Nov 1971 Brig Khaled Mosharraf (yes Mosharraf) led a counter-coup against the majors. Within days he promoted himself to Maj Gen and appointed himself the COAS. He negotiated an exile of Mujib’s killers who were allowed to fly out.

17. However, just three days later, on 7th Nov 1971, a leftist inspired counter-counter-coup took place led by sepoys loyal to ex-Col Abu Taher, a charismatic figure who had been leading leftist sleeper cells amongst the troops. Brig Khaled Mosharraf was killed in the coup.

18. The slogan of the sepoy led mutiny was ‘all sepoys are brothers, we want the blood of officers’. It saw several officers murdered across BD, and a set of demands put forward by the sepoys. They also freed ex-COAS Gen Zia ur Rahman, who had been put under detention by Khaled.

19. General Zia ur Rahman had also passed out from PMA. He was loyal to Pakistan till the very end and saw the Mukti Bahini as miscreants. It was only when the news of killings at East Bengal Regimental Center got to him did he switch sides and became a freedom fighter.

20. At the time he was 2IC of 8 East Bengal Regiment. He had his Pakistani CO stripped naked, sit in the CO’s chair and shot dead by his Bengali batman. Later he led the Z-force of Mukti Bahini and became a war hero/legend in Bangladesh.

21. After the coup, Zia became the Chief Martial Law Administrator and eventually the President of Bangladesh. His tenure saw a lot of economic progress for BD and he was generally very popular with the masses. However, within the military and veterans it was another story.

22. From 1975 to 1981, there were 21 mutinies against Gen Zia. The 21st mutiny was led by Maj Gen Manzoor, GOC 24th Inf Division. While Zia died in the attack, the Army managed to quell the mutiny and Gen Manzoor was killed as a result. Another 13 officers were tried and hanged.

23. After Zia's death on 30 May 1981, a civilian President took over. However, on 24th Mar 1982, Gen Hussain Ershad, the COAS took power in a bloodless military coup and became Chief Martial Law Administrator and ruled BD till 1990.

24. Unlike his predecessor Generals, Ershad survived his Presidency, relinquished power in 1990 and stayed active in politics. He passed away in 2019. From 1982 to 1996, there were no military coups in Bangladesh and civilians remained in power.

25. In 1996, the then COAS, General Abu Saleh Nasim attempted a coup against the President who dismissed two senior officers for publicly speaking against the government. However, most troops remained loyal to the President. The Army Chief was arrested and court-martialed.

26. Throughout the 1990’s two women played musical chairs with the PM-ship of Bangladesh. One was Khaleda Zia, wife of later Pres. Zia, and the other was Hasina Wajid, daughter of Mujib.

27. In 2006, troops of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) revolted against its officers. The BDR is similar to Rangers or FC, with officers sent from the Army. The revolt started during a darbaar when a DG (a Maj Gen) was giving a speech. It eventually led to the murder of 57 officers.

28. However, the mutiny remained localized to BDR and the mutineers eventually surrendered, were tried and given death sentences. Many more were alleged to have been killed during interrogation due to torture.

29. End thread. Phew.

30. Lots of people have asked this. The main book I recommend is Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood. By Anthony Mascarhenhas

Anthony was a Pakistani Christian who refused to toe the line of the military regime state and wrote the article that brought intl. attention to the crisis.

31. CORRECTIONS:

#16 Correct date: 3rd Nov '1975'
#17 Correct date: 7th Nov '1975'
#27 Correct year: '2009'

Please excuse typos/mistakes.