Thread by @iOsamaAzam

#OnThisDay March 25th, 1971
Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman was prodded down the stairs of his house by Pakistani soldiers, hitting him from behind with their rifle butts. He was flown to West Pakistan and was jailed for nine months for his resistance to the fascist military regime. 1/13

Mujib told full story of his arrest and imprisonment and narrow escapes from death after his release from prison. He said he had learned of a plot by the Pakistani military regime to kill him and lay it to the Bengalis. “Whenever I came out of the house,”... 2/13

He related “they'd throw grenade at my car & say Bengali extremists did it & that's why army had to move in & act against my people. I decided to stay in my house & let them kill me in my own house, so that everybody wd know they had killed me & my blood wd purify my people” 3/13

On 25th March in midnight, troops broke into his house, killing a watchman who had refused to leave, and stormed up the stairs. Sheikh Mujib said he opened the door of the dressing room and faced them saying: “Stop shooting, Stop Shooting”... 4/13

“Why are you shooting? If you want to shoot me, then shoot me; here I am, but why are you shooting my people and my children?”. After another flurry a major halted the men and told them there would be no more shooting. He told Sheikh Mujib he was being arrested. 5/13

He kissed each member of the family and said to them: “They may kill me. I may never see you again. But my people will be free some day and my soul will see it and be happy.”
He was driven to the National Assembly building, “where I was given a chair”... 6/13

“Then they offered me tea, I said, ‘That's wonderful. Wonderful situation. This ‘is the best time of my life to have tea.’”, said Mujib. On April 1, he was flown to Rawalpindi, in West Pakistan & then moved to Mianwali Prison and put in the condemned cell. 7/13

He passed the next nine months alternating between that prison and two others, at Lyallpur and at Sahiwal, all in Punjab. The military Government began proceedings against him on 12 charges, six of which carried the death penalty. One was “waging war against Pakistan.” 8/13

At first he demanded to be defended by AK Brohi, West Pakistan's most eminent lawyer. Brohi was finally assigned to him and began preparing the defense. After several months the trial opened at Lyallpur at which time Shiekh Mujib announced that he wanted to enter no defence. 9/13

General Yahya Khan issued a new martial‐law order saying that Sheikh Mujib had to have a lawyer whether he wanted one or not. “You see how they were ‘protecting my rights,’” Sheikh Mujib related. “They just wanted a certificate to hang me.” 10/13

The superintendent of Mianwali jail was asked by the regime to kill Mujib in prison. By then the war on Eastern front had gone into it's final stages and military elite got busy with that and that's how destiny saved Sheikh Mujib from death in darkness. 11/13

As a reward for his sacrifice & his nation's resolve, he got out of prison and his people got freedom from the clutches of authoritarianism that kept on ruling the West Pakistan in the years to come. Today, Pakistan stands at similar crossroads. 12/13

A leader who is ray of light for his people & threat to life-long dictatorship of military elite is being subjected to injustice by state. They want to kill him but he has already exposed them to the core. Killing him will be the last nail in their coffin. #AnimalFarm 13/13